Arsenal: Mikel Arteta says deal with ‘noise’ or join a different club

Arsenal Coach Mikel Arteta says his players should “be part of a different club” if they can’t handle the “noise” as his side try to end their 22-year wait for a league title.

The Gunners are two points clear at the top of the league as they attempt to win their first title since Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles did so in 2003-04.

But they have achieved only two wins from their last seven Premier League matches, and Manchester City closed the gap at the top from five to two points ahead of Arsenal’s match away to 16th-placed Tottenham on Sunday (16:30 GMT).

They were criticized after squandering a 2-0 lead against bottom club Wolves on Wednesday, conceding a 94th-minute equaliser.

This has led to accusations that Arsenal are a ‘bottle maker’, a word Arteta says is ‘not part of my vocabulary’.

His team finished second in the last three seasons, twice against City and last season against Liverpool.

Before the north London derby, when asked how to stop the external noise overwhelming his team, Arteta said: “You ask them the question: Do you want to be part of the noise? Or not?”

“If not, go and do something else, be part of a different club.

“Everyone has been demanding for 10 or 15 years that we should go back there [fighting for the title] And now we are there. Now what? You don’t want the noise?

“The noise is part of it and the bullets are part of it and we are trying to deal with it in the right way and achieve what we are looking for.”