Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has insisted that he and his players must focus on matters on the pitch rather than off it after thousands of Gunners supporters staged a protest against club owner Stan Kroenke ahead of tonight's clash with Everton.
Gunners fans flocked to the Emirates Stadium ahead of this evening's Premier League tussle to make their feelings known about Kroenke's decision to put the club forward to join the widely-criticised European Super League and his overall running of the club.
Arsenal were one of 12 clubs to have been confirmed as founding members of the breakaway league last Sunday evening, only for it to collapse in dramatic circumstances on Tuesday evening after a remarkable backlash from clubs not involved, supporters and an array of pundits.
On Thursday, Kroenke's son, Josh, participated in a Fans' Forum to explain Arsenal's decision to initially join the breakaway league before being forced to back out, just as the five other English clubs involved did.
Although Arsenal's players have the task of trying to get back to winning ways this evening, matters off the pitch and those directly outside the stadium have dominated the pre-match conversation.
However, ahead of kick-off, Gunners chief Arteta refused to offer too many thoughts on matters out of his control, focusing fully on matters on the pitch.
“We hear them, we know what they think, but our responsibility, our role, our commitment, should be on trying to play the best possible way to try and win the match," Arteta told Sky Sports. "That’s it.
"It doesn’t help when you have your own fans trying to stand out on a match day and singing loud and clear that they’re not happy with something.
"But our job again is to win the football match and when that happens, everything is better. That’s our way to contribute in the best possible and positive way."
As for on-field matters, Arteta opted to make six changes to his starting line-up this evening following Sunday's draw with Fulham, one of which was enforced after losing Alexandre Lacazette to injury during the week, meaning he joined the likes of David Luiz, Kieran Tierney and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the sidelines.
Assessing the current injury situation, Arteta added: "We have quite a lot of injuries at the moment, with some important players and we picked up some more last weekend.
"We have to adapt to it, but again, the boys trained really well and the ones that are playing deserve to play."
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