Every word Mikel Arteta said on Bukayo Saka fitness, Gabriel Martinelli injury and Timber return

How is Saka?

He’s fine. We haven’t trained, just recovered. We have a short, light session today to prepare the game and we will see if he’s in the best condition to start or not.

Is Luton an opportunity to give him more time to recover?

We’re just thinking about Luton, preparing the game in the best possible way and earn the right to beat them.

Is Martinelli ready to play 90 minutes?

He is because he was available to play against a really tough opponent three days ago. He certainly is today. We will train today and see the state of every player and make the right decision tomorrow.

Is this a time when you need all your squad to be successful?

Yes, we have discussed that and pushing for each other to be available to contribute in any way to help us win and perform consistently at the level we need. We’re going to need everyone.

Have to keep players who haven’t been playing motivated?

Yeah, that’s certainly something really important. They need to feel it and the best way to feel it is to play minutes. When they don’t have that capacity to do it, they have to show it in training and we have to convince them to keep doing it to earn the right to play.

Different way of playing for a result vs City showing the evolution of the squad?

You have to, sometimes because you want to adapt, sometimes you because you have to adapt and have that resilience. Leave your ego aside and your ideology aside and do what you have to do to win the game. I thought the team was mentally really strong and clever the way they did it.

READ MORE: Arsenal press conference LIVE – Mikel Arteta on Luton, Saka, Martinelli and Timber injury news

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Saliba and Odegaard said they weren’t satisfied with a point. What have you done as a coach to ensure that?

You prepare the game to win it. When you feel you have what it takes to go there and win, and you want to do it, at the end you are not satisfied. But at the same time you have to understand how you are growing as a team and be smart enough in certain moments to accept something else.

Luton next. Good memories of the game in December?

Yes, especially [because of] how tough it was to win and how difficult they have made it for every team. Big compliments to Rob [Edwards], the coaching staff and what they have done as a club. It’s an amazing journey. I think they deserve more credit than any other team in this league. How they’ve done it, what they transmit as a team and what they generated. It’s going to be a very tough game tomorrow.

Edwards said he would have been crowdsurfing after that game…

Yeah, it was really emotional. The way we celebrated tells you the difficulty of the match and how much we had to fight to get the points. We know what we’re facing tomorrow.

A lot of praise for Saliba and Gabriel on Sunday. When did you first see them as a duo that could work long term?

When I decided with Edu and the club to send Willy to Marseille. In that moment… No, I’m just joking. You just feel it when you see the partnership. Sometimes there is a chemistry between two players that complement each other. They are so happy to work with and for each other. It just flows. They really enjoy playing together and they’ve been really good.

Do you approach Luton differently to Man City?

We’re going to need even more after two-and-a-half days. They are in a really good moment. When you see the games they have played and not won, they have been really tough. They’ve had some extraordinary results against the other teams who are leading the table and we are not top. That means we have missed points elsewhere and where we have to put the emphasis tomorrow.

Approaching the most crucial period of the season. How do you see that?

I’m really excited but we always have this discussion. I remember when we played Liverpool at home months ago it was a ‘must win’ or ‘not lose’ because if not the title was over. That was two months ago. It’s always like that. When you look back to October who you felt the necessity to win and be there. It’s not going to change from now until the end. The end is coming and there are still a lot of games. Just embrace the moment, go game by game and make sure we fully prepare for tomorrow to perform well.

How have you arrived at the point where you’re in the run for two top competitions with a month to go?

This is where we want to be. Now we want to take this opportunity and make this happen. We worked with that enthusiasm and passion to make it happen and we’re enjoying the moment as well. That’s what has to drive this moment.

Are you enjoying the moment?

I am. I am really excited, I am full of energy. It’s the most beautiful park of the season.

More than as a player?

It is different. I haven’t been in this position when I was a player. But it’s different.

Do you have to win every game to win the title?

I don’t know but it’s going to be really close to that. When you see the level and consistency of the other teams and historically what is needed to win, it’s going to be close to that.

Does it matter that players might not have a rhythm when they’re coming off the bench?

It’s always that balance. When you play you say ‘yeah but it’s my first game.’ Our obligation and our duty is to be prepared to play any minute in any moment. Look at the example of Reiss. His best moment for Arsenal, it’s a moment where he played a few minutes and made a huge impact and it’s one of the best days in his life as an Arsenal player. Nobody remembers if he started or if it was off the bench. There are a lot of examples in world sport where players made the impact. Sometimes you just need a second to change the history of a football club. You don’t need 100 minutes to play football.

Is that hard to explain to players?

It’s easy to see that it’s a fact. It’s not something that I’m inventing.

How long-term do you allow yourself to think when making team selection?

Yeah you have to have a picture of what is coming obviously and you have to manage the load, how we’re going to be able to train, how long we have to prepare games and then obviously the historic and congested period of each individual and how we can still perform in the best possible way, what are the best possible relationships. There are a lot of factors that the team needs to perform in order to make the right decision.

Are you in phase four of your plan?

Let me go back to the computer! We’re not far I think. Getting close to that.

So you are in phase three still?

Then you have to go back to phase one again and you have to build that and you have to improve and evolve.

Can you tell us what phase one is?

No, no, no. Maybe one day we can go and have a coffee and I’ll tell you how it works.

Are you on track overall?

Yeah we certainly are because you feel a lot of things at the club. It’s only the men’s first team. You see what the women did at the weekend, it made us so proud. It’s so important as well because we are really encouraging and embracing them to have the space that they fully deserve. They’re doing really well. It’s the same with the academy and the supporters. We have that unity within the club in that sense. There’s a lot of good things happening but we want and we need to aim for much more than that.

How is Jurrien Timber’s recovery going?

He’s doing very well. He’s back training. He’s not far off, the thing is that last step, he hasn’t played any minutes. Does he need a game with the Under-21s? Does he need two games? He’s constantly training with us to see how long that’s going to take him in that last part which is tricky and sometimes takes a while. Hopefully [he’s back] as quick as possible.

How would you rate his chances (for this season)?

I think he’s got a good chance. I don’t know a percentage but he’s got a good chance and he’s going to push it as far as he can.

Is there a number of changes for tomorrow that you think would be too many?

It’s a good question. We’re always wondering about that. It’s just changing certain personnel in certain moments, looking at how they play together, how much time they have spent together that can affect things as well. It’s related to what they do every single day in training as well. We will look at all these things and try to find the right team to win.

Do you have a personal preference for the number of changes you want to make?

We have done both. They have worked sometimes. Sometimes not that good. Sometimes it’s unrelated to those changes and would have been the same. It’s very difficult to predict.