Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hailed the mentality of Bukayo Saka to bounce back from Euro 2020 final penalty shoot-out heartbreak, while he implored the Gunners to capitalise in the top-four race.
Saka missed the decisive spot-kick for England against Italy in early July, leading to a wave of online racial abuse towards him and international colleagues Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford.
Arteta previously suggested the penalty failure would aid Saka's development and resilience, and the 20-year-old has supported his manager's comments with his best Premier League season to date.
Saka has scored 11 times in the league and assisted five more as Arsenal battle with Tottenham for the final Champions League qualification spot, while he has made amends from the penalty spot in recent weeks.
Indeed, he became the youngest player ever to score a penalty in consecutive Premier League appearances following spot-kicks against Chelsea and Manchester United in the last two games.
Arteta confirmed Saka will again be on penalty duties should the chance arise at West Ham on Sunday as the Spaniard heaped praise on the England international.
"Well, if someone has to take a penalty, he will take it," Arteta told reporters at a pre-match news conference on Friday.
"Again, but it happened quite naturally in the Chelsea game, he took it and the next game we had another one and hopefully he can continue to put the ball in the back of the net.
"The first two conversations that I had [with him] it was straight after the incident [at Euro 2020], but Gareth Southgate was really helpful as well because he had Bukayo in his hands at that moment and they were really caring and really supportive of him, so by the time he joined us, he was in a really good place.
"Obviously, he got all this support and love and help in any way that he needed it to overcome that situation and then it's down to him and his family around him that were very helpful for him."
Arsenal have been inspired by their younger players this season, with Emile Smith Rowe just the second Gunner to score 10 or more Premier League goals in a season, after Nicolas Anelka in 1998-99 (17).
Fellow youngster Eddie Nketiah also netted twice to guide Arsenal past Chelsea earlier in the month, and Arteta believes club experience helps his youthful squad when they go on international duty.
"I think they're doing it at their clubs and that's really, really important so again, the step of demands is not that high, they are already key and important players in their own clubs," he added.
"So they're used to that pressure and at international level it's something very different, but I think they have the maturity and they have the capacity to sustain that level under pressure because they're doing it every week at their clubs."
Arteta will be hoping his young Gunners can deliver again when Arsenal visit fellow top-four chasers West Ham on Sunday, looking to improve on their two-point lead over fifth-placed Tottenham.
However, the Arsenal manager warned to expect more changes heading into the final weeks of the season as teams battle for European football next campaign.
Asked whether the fight for fourth place was a two-horse race, he responded: "I don't think so, there will still be some twists and turns, we all have difficult matches to play.
"We all know how difficult it is to win games in the Premier League and now we had two really good results that put us in a really good position. But it is about doing it again at West Ham.
"I think in the league when you are able to win consecutively away and at home, it gives you a huge platform and things quickly change.
"We have some momentum now and we want to make the most out of it."
FA Cup replays abolished from first round proper next season
FA Cup replays have been scrapped from next season, the Football Association has announced.
The move to abolish all replays from the first round proper onwards is part of a new agreement between the FA and the Premier League which will see an extra £33million going to grassroots football from the top flight each season.
The FA had already scrapped replays from the fifth round onwards and said the move to ditch them altogether had been agreed “in light of changes to the calendar driven by the expanded UEFA competitions”.
The FA said all rounds would now be played at the weekend, with the fifth phase having moved to midweek for the last five seasons.
The FA said the final will now be played on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, on a Saturday with no top-flight matches taking place on the same day.
I saw only one team – Rodri bemoans Real Madrid’s tactics after City’s Euro exit
Rodri claims he “saw only one team” trying to win as he bemoaned Real Madrid’s tactics following Manchester City’s heartbreaking Champions League quarter-final loss.
City’s European title defence ended in agonising fashion at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday as the Spanish giants prevailed 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw on the night meant the tie ended 4-4 on aggregate.
It was a clash the holders completely dominated, racking up 33 attempts on goal to the visitors’ eight, but Real defended deep to frustrate them and ultimately ended their hopes of a second successive treble.
City midfielder Rodri said: “To be honest, I saw only one team. In terms of defending, they defended (well). They knew how to suffer and we know how tough Real Madrid are.
“But in my opinion we should go through with that amount of chances but this is the trick of this competition. They know how to play it. We congratulate them.
“We gave everything, there is nothing to regret. This is football sometimes. This shows how difficult it is to win it, as we did last season. It was very frustrating and sometimes it is difficult to explain.”
City’s exit from the competition they won with a Rodri goal in Istanbul last year, coupled with Arsenal’s loss to Bayern Munich, means there are no English semi-finalists for the first time since 2020.
City had to chase the tie after Rodrgyo pounced to put Real ahead after 12 minutes.
They created a plethora of chances in a storming response, with Erling Haaland going the closest in the first half when he headed against the bar.
Further opportunities came and went after the break and it was not until the 76th minute that Kevin De Bruyne finally broke through to net a deserved equaliser.
But De Bruyne spurned a good chance to win it when he fired over soon after and, with extra-time failing to separate the sides, it came down to spot-kicks.
Ederson saved from Luka Modric but Bernardo Silva’s attempted Panenka was too easy for Andriy Lunin, who also denied Mateo Kovavic as Real went through.
The Premier League leaders now have little time to pick themselves up before heading to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea on Saturday.
Rodri said: “We will have to digest the loss but we will have to wake up, stand up. We still have two more competitions to play for.
“We need the mentality (to be) positive, to find any ambition that right now is difficult to find. Tomorrow we will find it and go against Chelsea, try to be in another final and fight for the Premier League.”
City will need to assess key pair Haaland and De Bruyne who, along with Manuel Akanji, were substituted before the penalty shoot-out.
Haaland was removed at the end of the regulation 90 minutes with the influential De Bruyne leaving the action in the second period of extra-time.
Manager Pep Guardiola said: “Erling and Kevin asked me to go out – they could not continue, like Manu. The game we were playing, they were amazing, but they could not continue.”
Q&A – How Man City and Arsenal exits could impact Premier League’s European race
The prospect of five English clubs competing in next season’s Champions League is hanging by a thread after Manchester City and Arsenal were knocked out of the continent’s premier club competition on Wednesday night.
Here, the PA news agency explains the situation.
Why is there an extra place?From this season, the two countries who collectively perform best in this season’s men’s European club competitions will each gain a European Performance Spot (EPS) for one of their clubs in the following season’s Champions League, which will feature a 36-team league phase from 2024-25 replacing the familiar eight groups of four.
For each of the best-performing countries, the EPS goes to the highest-finishing club in those countries who have not already qualified for the Champions League via their domestic performance. In England’s case, that would be the team finishing fifth – currently Tottenham.
How do the rankings look at the moment?The rankings – known as the association club coefficient – are led this season by Italy. Germany were already ahead of England in the race for the second spot heading into the quarter-final second legs, but the exits of City and Arsenal – coupled with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund making progress – have widened the gap.
Last Friday – after the Europa League and Conference League first legs had been played – Germany had 16.785 points compared to England’s 16.750, a gap of 0.035. On Thursday morning the gap had grown to 0.767, with Germany on 17.642 and England on 16.875.
How are the points worked out?Teams gain points for wins (two) and draws (one) from the start of the group phase in all three of UEFA’s men’s club competitions. Teams also earn points for participation in the Champions League group phase and for making progress beyond certain rounds in all three competitions.
The association coefficient is calculated by working out an average score – dividing the total number of points the clubs win by the number of clubs representing that country in Europe. So in England’s case any points won by the Premier League representatives are divided by eight.
Can England still do it?In theory yes. West Ham and Liverpool could still meet in the Europa League final if they can overturn first-leg deficits to Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta respectively on Thursday night, and Aston Villa could still go all the way in the Conference League. That, coupled with the remaining German teams stumbling, means there is still very slim hope.
But Germany certainly have the edge and could even end up with six teams in next season’s Champions League. If Dortmund finish fifth in the Bundesliga but win the Champions League, it would be the second of those achievements which would secure them their Champions League place for 2024-25. The EPS would then be awarded to whoever finishes sixth – currently Eintracht Frankfurt.
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