Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Burnley, and football.london has every word from the press conference
Mikel Arteta faced the press ahead of Arsenal’s match with Burnley on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League. Speaking at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday, the Spaniard gave all the latest insights before the game.
Gabriel Martinelli and William Saliba both missed the midweek clash with Brighton. However, the former has not yet recovered from whatever issue there was, which he suffered in the win over Crystal Palace.
Regarding the Eagles, it might be that they have to play four games in eight days. Arteta gave his thoughts on the fixture congestion and its effect on the players and supporters.
Here is every word from the press conference:
Any fresh injuries to report after the other night?
No, I think we have the same ones. Martinelli’s still out. Saliba we have to wait and see. We have another training session this afternoon. And the rest is still getting closer. I think in the right direction, but not available yet.
So Saliba’s got a chance, but Martinelli, do you foresee how long he might be out for?
No, we don’t know yet, but I think this game is going to come too early.
Just on those other four that you mentioned, just Jesus, Odegaard, Madueke, Havertz, have you got any updates on when they could be back?
I would say weeks, and some of them pretty soon, hopefully, if they keep evolving the way they are doing. Difficult to put a game, you know, that we have the international break, which is a two-week break there. And after that, I think we’ll have some back. I don’t know if it’s going to be all of them, some of them, but we’ll be quite close by then.
Eight wins on the spin now for your team. I’m guessing momentum is very, very difficult to build, but very easy to shatter in a way. Is that the message to your team, to keep the foot on the gas consistently?
“Yeah, and maintain the level of urgency, the concentration, the focus, ambition that we are showing every game. And every game brings different challenges. Sometimes we have to be very patient. Some of the times we have to have a different approach. And the game against Burnley is going to be really tough. They are extremely well-coached, and I Scott what he’s done really well with the club and with this team. It’s formidable and when you look at all the games, and I see five of the last games that they played, very, very tough team to beat.
They are one of the three promoted teams. In the last two seasons, all three promoted teams have gone down. Currently, none of those three promoted teams are in the relegation zone. Can you put into context how competitive this particular Premier League is?
Well, more than ever, I think the level is increasing year after year. Better structure, better organisation, better decision-making from clubs, managers, better players. So, it’s a real difficulty of that. And when I look against big teams, the way they have behaved and how they have earned points or lost points, it’s for very small margins. And that’s the reality in this league.
You’ve said before that you’ve loved every minute of being manager at Arsenal. I guess even win, lose or draw, you said that you loved it. Is picking this team currently fast becoming the worst part of your job?
No, I cannot say that. It is the worst part in terms of the decision with certain players when you don’t allow them to play, which is the hardest part in our job. But they acknowledge that as well. And at the end, it’s like when they make decisions, some good, some bad, and not judging every decision that they make. We cannot do that. So, the other way around, this cannot happen. So, at the moment, we are dealing with it in a really positive way. And you can see the consequences to that in the impact that every player that is not playing is having and when they have to play the way they are performing. And you only do that with good preparation and good mental state.
How do you manage that disappointment, though? Because it’s human nature for players to say, I should be playing, I deserve to play. But sometimes you have to tell them, actually, you’re not going to be in the team today.
Well, it’s an education that you probably get since you are young and you decide to play football. You know that there are 11 players playing and then another 10 or 12 that they’re not going to start again. It doesn’t mean they’re not going to be important for the team. So, hopefully, that’s an education that all of us got with the right coaches very early in our careers. If I have to do that right now, obviously, it will be difficult, and just try to do it with an open heart, understanding that you care about them and you want the best, and they will have their moments. And then, yeah, try to be as fair as possible when you see certain behaviours and that willingness to play gives them, obviously, the opportunity to play.
It’s often said a team reflects their manager. When I’m watching Arsenal now, they look calm and controlled. When I’m watching you on the sidelines, you seem to be calm and controlled. Sometimes more than others, yeah. Are you? And I remember you were talking just before the Atletico Madrid game that you’ve been working on that side of it. What have you done to try and become a little bit more calm and controlled on the sideline?
I think it’s the years, I think the trust and confidence that you have in the team as well, in the work that you do. Getting feedback, I think is the best thing for people that are very close in our job, people that know you really, really well. Where is that coming from? Because sometimes it’s a way. I want my team to be very active and at the same time very creative and very disciplined. And if you want the manager to be like that, you cannot be just watching the game like this. So, as well, it’s something that is the way I am, it’s the way I live the game, and I want the players as well to live the game constantly with that body language. And from there, you can always improve.
I wanted to pick up on what you just said there. Are you able to maybe tell us who it is that you turn to for feedback?
No, a lot of people, some of them you know, and I cannot say it here, but it’s just that. The good and the bad, all the ideas that they can bring to make us better. There are people that have a different perspective, they’re not with us every single day, and probably that’s the people that have a clearer picture about looking at things with a different idea or perspective to help us, not only me, but all the coaches, and for sure the players as well. Some of them we know.
Is that other managers, by any chance?
Yeah, other sports can be, but you will know them.
And going back to the competitiveness of the team, after the game against Brighton, Myles Lewis-Skelly said that he enjoys that competitive spirit and he loves to give you something to think about. Do you feel in virtually every position at the moment, all your players are giving you something to think about ahead of choosing a starting XI?
Well, that’s what we want to create. We want to get the best out of all of them. Those standards have to be set in training, and if you don’t have that in training, it’s very difficult to replicate it during matches. So it’s the balance between the competition and the cooperation between the players as well to understand their role on the day and what they have to do. But I love that spirit.
Scott Parker was also very complimentary about you. He said that it’s an exceptionally well-oiled machine when it comes to talking about Arsenal. Do you feel the team is a well-oiled machine, or how far are they away from being that?
Yeah, I think we are able to dominate in a lot of aspects of the game. We can, of course, improve in many of them still, and that’s a constant evolution as a team. But the more resources and the more things we can dominate throughout a game, especially in the Premier League, the better chance you have to win games.
As we sit here right now, we don’t know when the Cup quarter-final with Crystal Palace is going to be played because there is, to put it mildly, a pile-up of fixtures…
Not on Christmas Day, I think.
It’s an option.
Okay.
I was wondering if you could speak to me about where we’ve got to now regarding players and supporters and how the amount of fixtures and how often they’re coming is beginning to affect both players and supporters.
Well, every decision that we make in terms of a fixture has to be guided on two main things, I think. Players’ welfare and then supporters. That’s it. And the rest has to come very, very far away from that. And we should never forget that principle. That’s the only thing I would say.
Are we in a situation sometime soon, not now, but maybe in a season or two, if this continues with the amount of fixtures that big clubs are having to play, they may have to pull out of some competitions because they just can’t fit all the games in?
I hope we don’t go. If we have that big piece of paper with those two principles there in front before we make any decision, all of us in our industry, we won’t get there. If we don’t and we just ignore that, then anything is possible.
On a brighter note, we’re coming into November. You’re winning every game without conceding a goal. Other teams are inconsistent, let’s put it that way, the likes of Man City, the likes of Liverpool. In terms of that, is this the perfect opportunity now for you and Arsenal to go and achieve what you want to?
It’s a big opportunity that we have ahead of us, but we have to continue with that level of consistency, and we know how difficult that is. Tomorrow is going to be an extremely tough match for us, and we’re going to have to again hit those performance levels to end the game.
Finally, you’ve spoken about how difficult it is to pick the team and tell players when they’re in the starting XI, they’re not in the starting XI. Two youngsters the other night you were beaming about when making his debut, maxed out, we’ve seen before. How difficult is it to tell youngsters, kids, when they’ve played and they’ve had that high, sorry, maybe you’re not starting next game or you may not even be in the squad next. How difficult is that for you? Because you said the other night was one of the proudest nights you’ve had.
Well, when you’re delivering good news, it’s so easy and it’s so wonderful and you get an incredible reaction. But we have to be prepared in our job to give all the kind of news and messages sometimes. And it is for the best for the team and maybe not for the best of the individual. But you never know because some decisions that at the time you think they are not good for you, they become the best decision for your career and I’ve experienced that myself. So, take them, make the most out of them and we’ll see what happens next day.
Myles spoke to some of our colleagues on Wednesday and he used the word “our house” to describe the Emirates. I’m curious, is that something that you’ve kind of instilled culturally or does that organically come from the players, that tag of the Emirates being “our house?”
That’s the way I feel it. Hopefully the way they feel it as well. But to use that language, you really have to feel it and you have to feel that when you get there, your energy level, your desire to defend your house, to threaten everybody, anybody that comes very close to that. It has to be your mindset, and if the players feel that and our supporters feel that, I think we’re going to be stronger.
When you now go away, as you do on Saturday, how does that messaging change, being in enemy territory, for instance? How does that change the wording, if you like, of what goes from “our house” to “their house?”
Yeah, we go to a different territory, obviously we use a different language to that. But yeah, at the end, the purpose and what we want to achieve in the game is very similar. But the context changes because we are in a different situation.
Just on the calendar and the fixture issues, Rodri last season spoke quite passionately about players feeling they’re at the point where they might have to strike to get their voices heard. Is that when you talk about anything is possible, your kind of fears that people aren’t being listened to, it takes extreme measures to get what needs to be done?
Hopefully not. If we look after the players’ welfare and our supporters, I think we’re never going to get to that point. And that’s it. We have to close the window there. We cannot open that window. It has to be closed. It’s our most precious value. We have the best league in the world and we cannot just open any window for anything just to lose that because we don’t respect that, and we forget what we are made of and what makes this game and this league so, so special. And if we respect that, I’m sure we’re going to be totally fine.
Just on Noni, Martin and Kai, you sounded pretty confident on them. That game after the international break, obviously the North London derby, is your hope that you can have the trio back for that?
Yeah, I’m excited because they are tremendous players. I see them work every single day, how desperate they are to be part of the team. The huge boost that is going to be for the squad to have and those players again, after such a long, long time, so really happy that I think it’s going to be very soon.
I just wondered, when you have a night like you did the other night in the League Cup, where players who played less are making a big contribution, academy players making a big contribution, what impact does that have in the dressing room in the days that follow? Do you see the transformational impact that can have?
Absolutely. And especially when we talk about players that they are starting their careers because we’ve all been there and that’s something that I discuss with the players and make sure that when Andre [Harriman-Annous] thinks about this day, he knows exactly the date, the team, the hour and who played next to that and what actually happened that day because that’s for the rest of your life and we are all responsible to make that day, that night very, very special for him. And the other fact because you play a cup that you are in or you are out, and if we want to win every trophy and want to be there, we have to be ruthless in every competition. In order to achieve that, we’re going to need any player, and in order to do that, you have to be at your best and we have a lot of players that play very few minutes but on minute three, Kepa made that save because every day he trained like a beast and it’s not a coincidence.
You have got a really talented group, a big group as well. Do you have any concerns about sustaining a group of that size in the long term or do you feel more that this is a necessity and other clubs will be following that example?
Well, because I’ve been part of the club when I was at Arsenal, and we had an incredible squad when I was at Manchester City, and you could pick two or three players per position. If you want to go to Chelsea or Liverpool when they win it, they all have it. We don’t do anything special and thank God we have it because we have five or six players out, big players out and we are having to use other kinds of solutions as well and the team remains competitive so very necessary. I don’t think you get away at that level with anything else than that.
Just one more on the fixture congestion. Is there an easy fix? Because obviously it’s a topic that comes up season after season. Is there an easy solution to it?
No, probably it’s not easy, but it has to be doable because if we are putting something that is not doable, then what are we doing? So, it’s doable for sure, so let’s do it in the best possible manner, respecting players and supporters. That’s it.
And just in terms of Arsenal’s form at the moment when you go on a run like this, eight wins in a row six clean sheets I mean the confidence in the camp has been so high. Is there a feeling that Arsenal are unstoppable at the moment?
No, because you always have that sense of urgency, and you see the complications and the challenges that the next opponent is going to bring you, and we know that and every three days, we have very little time to train and prepare. We always have to be like this, and I see everybody in their toes, ready for the next game and accepting that challenge and understanding that the opportunity is there as well and if we do what we have to do we have a big opportunity to win again.
When does the title race start for you? For you?
For you? In pre-season already. So, for me it’s the first day in pre-season just trying to prepare the team and individuals in the best possible way and go with them back in because this is it’s going to be so long.
There seems to be a real belief among the players that they can win it this year. Do you encourage them to talk about it openly? Or do you kind of shut it down? How do you treat that around the players?
We have to focus on the journey and what we have to do every single day. Fixing the outcome, of course, we want to win it, and the preparation is towards that. Great. And now we have set all the protocols, processes, ambitions, everything and now you have to focus on what you have to do. If not, you get distracted with the rest, and I don’t want any of that in and around the team.
Because after finishing second for three years it would be easy maybe to think there’s a ceiling we’re never going to get there but they seem to have been able to kick on past that. How have you done that?
Because at the end you learn that the margins at the end to achieve it or not are multiple. So it can be that an opposition player is one against one against the keeper, he scores that goal, you are champion. The other keeper saves it you are not champion. It can be other injuries, it can be other decisions, it can be a mistake of mine, it can be that many factors that we cannot control that outcome or we can control it while we can do the best. That’s it.
Talking about Son.
Talking about a lot of things.
He’s the one thinking of though?
So it’s a lot of factors that have a lot of factors that have to go your way you can do a lot of great things and still a lot of things have to go your way and the injuries and the plays that you have to play and they have to be there and the personal lives have to be perfect because if not it can unbalance. It’s so many things guys and it’s still so so long and we’ve seen already the turnaround in the league and go to the Champions League is the same all the league is the same we are not really in a specific context at the moment and let’s focus day by day.
