Sunday Oliseh has spent most of this season backing Arsenal loudly and consistently, calling them exceptional, tipping them for Champions League glory and insisting the only thing that can stop them winning the Premier League is themselves, Footynaija.com reports.
His latest take, however, has a very different tone. Arsenal are still alive in all four competitions. They lead the Premier League by nine points, face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final on March 22, are in the FA Cup quarter-finals and host Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League round of 16 second leg this week after a 1-1 draw from the first leg.
The quadruple is genuinely in sight, and the conversation around it has grown louder with every passing week.
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Oliseh, speaking on his Sunday Oliseh Global Football Insights show, does not think Arsenal should be entertaining any of it.
Oliseh’s warns Arsenal
The former Super Eagles captain and coach argued that the framing of the quadruple narrative is setting Arsenal up for a fall, regardless of how the season ends.
His concern is not with Arsenal’s quality but with what the expectations being built around them could do to their mental state in the months ahead.
“This is a very special period for Arsenal,” he said.
“This so-called quadruple hunt, for me, is a media trap. It’s propaganda. If they don’t win the quadruple, what was meant to be a great season will be swept under the bridge and it won’t be viewed as successful. They have to be smart. It’s a trap, and if they fall into it, they’ll live to regret it.”
It is a fair argument. No English club has ever won the quadruple, and the weight of expectation that comes with chasing it has broken better squads than this one.
Arteta, for his part, has refused to engage with the narrative, insisting at every press conference that his focus is on the next game.
Whether the players around him can maintain the same discipline in the weeks to come is what Oliseh is really questioning.
