Mikel Arteta was speaking ahead of Arsenal’s clash with West Ham United and in the wake of the UEFA Champions League last-16 draw against PSV Eindhoven. The latest team news was discussed and some small gems about Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
There was also plenty of perspective and grounding around the title race after Liverpool yet dropped more points. The Gunners could take hold of the charge again but will be reliant on Manchester City doing them a favour.
You can read every word from the press conference which football.london was in attendance for here:
Can we start off with team news first of all for Saturday?
No real news to be fair. The ones that are long-term, they remained not available and the rest, no real news.
Ben White was obviously on the bench on Saturday. Do you think he’s ready to start potentially?
He’s ready to play. Whether to start or not is a decision we’ll make tomorrow, but he’s certainly available now to be part of the group.
A question on the Champions League. You’ve got PSV Eindhoven in the last 16. What’s your reaction to it? Do you see it as a big opportunity to get to another quarter-final?
Well, we played against them. They are a really good team. We know that. We have experienced it and it will be very difficult like any other Champions League result that we could have got or any team. We know what we are facing. When you are at this stage, every team is really, really good. When the time comes, we’ll be ready for it.
Just on the title race, Mikel, you’ve seen Liverpool drop points in two of the last three games now. If you can beat West Ham, it’s a five-point gap ahead of their game against Manchester City. Is there a growing belief from you and your players that you can come back and claim this title?
Well, we have to do our job. It’s going to be a tough one tomorrow against West Ham. If we do that, obviously, we’ll be looking at that game on Sunday. It’s 13 games to go still. There’s still a lot, a lot, a lot to play. You can see how difficult it is for everybody to win football matches. We really need to be there.
I know you love watching those big games. Will you be glued to your TV on Sunday and hoping your friend Pep can do you a favour?
I’m glued to tomorrow’s game. That’s where I’m glued and my full focus is.
Just generally though, when you do watch these other games, are you a good spectator?
What does that mean?
As in, do you just watch it and can you relax?
No, I don’t relax. Especially when you are playing for this team, you obviously cannot relax. I relax watching games that don’t interfere with our ability to win big trophies.
This is the third season now that you’ve been involved and really involved in a title race in a row. What experiences do you think you can draw from what’s happened in the past two seasons to maybe get you over the line this time?
The margins are so small and everything counts. We had numbers that any other Premier League title probably you could have won it and we didn’t. So that shows you the level and the difficulty of it. But the fact that we have experienced it obviously helps because we know what it’s going to take to do it.
I spoke to Mikel Merino yesterday and he was saying that it might have been a good thing that he only knew on the morning of the game that he might be used up front. I’m guessing that you might have given him more of a warning this time ahead of this game, have you?
No, not to him or to other players. Especially because I want the players when they are in that pitch that they are feeling what they are doing and they are taking the initiative and I don’t blame them. They are thinking about what if tomorrow I have to do certain things. That’s why I did it.
That decision to play Merino as a makeshift striker against Leicester was labelled by some as an experiment that paid off. I just wonder, is that how you’d describe it too or is there more to it than that?
Well, if there’s something that we haven’t done or he hasn’t done in his career is to try a cold experiment, that’s it then. At the end, it’s trying to fit the qualities that we have within the squad, within the players to actually want to deliver. What the game is requiring or the opposition is requiring, I would take it more into that aspect than the other one. But after, it has to work. If not, it’s not the right call.
Given you’re essentially challenging for the title without a recognised striker now, are there any young forwards or perhaps hidden gems that you’re paying particularly close attention to right now with a view to fast-tracking into the senior set-up?
Yes, we are obviously. Some of the players are training with us now regularly and they’re in our system, they’ve been in our system for a while. But they’re very, very close and obviously we might have to use them. And they look ready as well, which is a good thing.
So is a situation like this an opportunity then for some?
Yes, for sure. And it can happen at any moment. And I spoke about them, so they are ready for it.
So West Ham up next for you of course on Saturday. Many will be looking at this as an opportunity to put more pressure on Liverpool. Do you see it that way too?
I see an opportunity for us to keep winning and to keep making our journey to the goal that we want at the end of the season, which is to win it. And that’s the only thing that we can focus on.
On wanting to win the league of course. Since their defeat to Plymouth, Liverpool have won just one of their last three league games. They travel to Man City this weekend as we know, all ifs and buts of course. But if you beat West Ham and Liverpool lose, come Sunday night the gap between you is five points plus you have a game in hand. Just how big a weekend could this be in terms of the title race?
I don’t know about ifs in football and in sport, I don’t like them. Let’s do what we have to do and then the if comes, great. But let’s make sure that what is in our hands, we do it.
And as for what’s in your hands, you yourselves are unbeaten in 15 league games. Given that form, do you sense the momentum swinging back your way looking at just the right time in the season?
That’s what we need and that’s a very important thing. When your energy and your belief increases, results are behind you, performances are good and everybody is having that shift in energy and belief. I think anything can happen.
Can I ask, are you obsessed by winning the title now this season because you’ve gone close for the last two years?
I’m obsessed with doing everything that I possibly can every single day to achieve it, that’s my obsession.
But does it literally dominate your thinking from the minute you get up in the morning to when you go to bed at night?
No.
So you’re not that obsessed by it?
I’m very obsessed by the process of it. That one, yeah, it consumes my whole day. Yes, I guarantee you that. But it’s the process, how you get there. The outcome, I cannot control it.
How much more difficult is it when you take on a team like West Ham who most people would say if you played this game ten times Arsenal would win nine of them, i.e. a game you should win. How much more difficult is your team to keep your team focused on?
I don’t think that anybody is thinking that way because we are very experienced in the Premier League and how difficult every opponent is. We have a history of what happened last year here at home against them. We have a history of what happened with them against us at the Emirates. So it’s a very different feeling.
And one on Mikel Merino. Last week, obviously, was it a gamble to put him on as a striker? It did pay off. Would you be prepared to gamble on that for longer, i.e. to start him against West Ham and start someone who isn’t an out-and-out striker?
Well, I think, obviously, every time you play a play, you are betting on that player. What is that bet? I’m prepared to bet a certain amount of money to earn a lot and not to bet a lot to earn very little. At the end, that’s by putting players in positions and in roles and surrounding our players that we believe it makes sense, and it can work and they are comfortable with it.
One last one on Bukayo Saka. Apparently, his rehab is coming along well. A couple of weeks ago, you said you were going to send him away on holiday. You almost forced him to go and have a holiday because he needed a break. Did he go? Where did you tell him to go? Where did you recommend he went on holiday?
He did go. That question is for him. If he wants to answer that.
On Merino, have you trained with him as a striker this week?
We trained the last few weeks with different players. He’s been one of them. With other players as well. It’s not only how you can finish a game, how you start a game, how you change if the opponent does something different. Every three days as well, we’re going to need different options.
Can I ask you about Raheem Sterling? He’s had some difficult performances. How is his confidence at the moment? How much are you trying to build him for what feels like a big period for his loan spell here?
Into the next one. Raheem is so experienced, and like many other players, we know that what you did yesterday is not whether it was really good or not. That could be relevant to the next game, to the next action. He’s fully focused, he’s trained really well this week, and ready to go again.
Do you still feel like you can have a big impact here?
Yeah, and he has to have it because we really need him.
A player comes off the bench and scores two goals naturally, that leads to a lot of questions about whether he should start the next game. But the fact that he came off the bench in that particular game state, how heavy does that weigh on your mind in potentially starting a player in a game? What’s the difference between that decision that has to be made?
We believe he was right for that context, but then he made it right. Starting a game is very different, especially against a team that obviously they have the adaptability to play in different ways, with very different behaviours within different structures that they can use as well. And that’s what we have prepared.
And just with the Champions League games in March, is there any hope that either of the two players in Martinelli and Saka could be at all back for either leg of those games?
I’m not sure. That’s a question for the doctor. They’re both evolving really well. Probably Martinelli is a bit ahead of Bukayo as well for the extent of that injury. But then we’ll have to see the next step in the previous weeks before that, how the boys are feeling and what we are prepared to do.
We had some news this week about Takehiro Tomiyasu having a second surgery. It’s an interesting situation. He obviously had a procedure at the start of the season and it’s been a long time since then. He’s had another one now. Can you tell us a bit about what’s been going on with him and why that decision was taken?
Well, he’s been trying everything that he possibly could to try to avoid it. We did that as well with the department. But at some stage, the knee wasn’t reacting as good and as rapidly as we needed to. And between all parties, we decided the best thing to do was to have that surgery again. Unfortunately, it’s going to keep him out for a long period again. And it’s very sad because he’s a player that he lives for the game. He’s really, really keen to play and be consistent. And when he’s at his level, it’s an incredible pressure for us.
Something he’s spoken about is how mentally challenging this period has been for him as well as physically. What can you do as a manager and what can the club do to support him through this process?
Well, we have to try and we try to do and we are constantly trying to do. But being a foreign presence, you don’t have your family here, no relatives. You are on your own and you are on the sidelines for many, many months. And especially him, his life is football. And when you understand what he does during the day is just a preparation for the next day and being in the best possible condition. And when injuries are denying you that ability to play and fulfil the purpose that you have in your career, it’s very, very tough. He knows, hopefully, that we are all here. We’ve all been trying to help him. But it’s tough and he needs to go through that and a lot of moments. Because, I mean, that is a very lonely process.
Just talking about sort of the mental and self-belief. Obviously, losing Kai was another big blow that you’ve had to deal with this season. Do you sense that the players have recovered from that and they’ve sort of regained the sense that they can go and win the league, that they actually believe they can go and do it?
Yeah, it’s just… I don’t know, recover or flick the switch and see, OK, what is the opportunity now? To do something, again, different, special for him, for the teammates, for all the effort that we have put in for so long again and everything that happened. And it’s been very re-energising as well to say, OK, let’s see if we can do that together again and whatever gaps we have within the team, we’re going to fill them in a different way with different players in different ways.
Obviously, you’ve gone up against City the last couple of years, but the fact that Liverpool are out there in front at the moment, does it feel any different this year to the last two years?
No, well, we’ve been in different situations. Sometimes we’ve been leading, sometimes at this stage we’re a bit behind and then we took the lead. Every year feels a little bit different. The ambition, the hope, the willingness, the energy is always there because the prize is so big.
I’m asking from the point of view that, do you talk to players about maybe reminding them they’re not up against a machine, since you’ve gone and done it year after year, 90-plus points? Liverpool are obviously a very good side, but we don’t know if they can do that.
Yeah, we don’t know. The point you’re saying is basically because they’ve done it for six, seven years, Man City. It is different, but to be fair, they’ve been very consistent, they’ve been an exceptional in what they’ve been doing. But it’s a long journey for everybody and we have to be there.
Just going back to Raheem, do you think that he’s struggling with his confidence?
Hopefully not, because we try to give him as much as possible, but that’s a question for him. But we are all behind him, we are the best for him and it’s going to be really important and we need his best. And we need the players only with that mindset, is to be here to impact the team.
In terms of what you’ve seen day to day, he seems pretty happy himself, or is there anything…
Yeah, I don’t see anything there, and he’s a player that is so experienced and he knows about the next action, the next action and the next action. Apart from that, there is nothing else to live and he’s doing everything that he possibly can to make it work.
