Mikel Arteta has defended Raheem Sterling and taken responsibility for his lack of minutes after the Arsenal loanee was labelled the ‘flop of the season’.
Sterling completed a shock loan move to Arsenal on transfer deadline day after being frozen out by new Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca.
Maresca informed Sterling he was not in his plans for the season and left the England international out of Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Manchester City.
Sterling would have hoped to revive his career at Arsenal but has struggled for game-time under Arteta, starting just two Premier League games.
His reduced role at Arsenal led ex-Liverpool striker Stan Collymore to label Sterling one of the ‘flops of the season’ last month.
‘Raheem Sterling has been a massive disappointment,’ Collymore told Metro. ‘He came in and said he was going to give the club his best work, but that hasn’t happened.
‘He’s arguably stunk the place out so far and he’s definitely one of the flops of the season having promised to do his best work at Arsenal.
‘He’s an experienced player who has won everything there is to win, he was expected to push the dressing room up another level and he hasn’t done that.’
But Arteta has taken responsibility for Sterling’s struggles and insists his ‘application and commitment’ has been ‘exceptional’.
‘I would like to see him more to be fair and this is down to me,’ Arteta said before Arsenal’s 5-2 thrashing over West Ham. ‘He’s trying his best.
‘His application and commitment around the team has been exceptional and now it’s time for me to five I’m more minutes.’
Asked whether Sterling would get more of a chance in the coming weeks, Arteta added: ‘That’s the intention.
‘That’s why I put him on against Forest, that’s why I wanted to put him on against Sporting, now getting into that rhythm because he can really impact the team as well.’
Sterling came on as a 74th-minute substitute during Arsenal’s impressive 5-2 battering over West Ham at the London Stadium.
It was Arsenal’s third successive victory following a wobble that has left them with work to do to catch Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Following the West Ham win, Arteta said: ‘I was happier with the first 30 minutes rather than the last 15 minutes of the first-half that’s for sure.
‘We started incredibly well, so positive, so much energy and a lot of quality.
‘Immediately after we scored the fourth we conceded a sloppy one and an unbelievable free-kick and then it was game on.
‘Thank goodness we scored the fifth and then that allowed us to play a different game in the second-half and manage it a lot more.’
Asked if he was still confident Arsenal could reel in Liverpool and win their first Premier League title since 2004, Arteta added: ‘We had to do our job and we’ve done it today in a really convincing way.
‘Tomorrow we will enjoy the match [Liverpool vs Manchester City] – a beautiful game of football.’
Meanwhile, ex-Premier League striker Chris Sutton declared the title race ‘on’ after Arsenal continued their revival in east London.
‘On a centre forward, you have to trust Mikel Arteta and last season you came so close,’ he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.
‘The question has always been with Arsenal, in tight games, do they have a natural goal scorer who wins games? They’ve tried with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.
‘With Arsenal now it looks like they’re hitting form. Good for them, title race on.’
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