Fresh off signing his new contract earlier in the week, Mikel Arteta held a press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre ahead of our first north London derby of the season at Tottenham on Sunday.
The boss was asked about extending his stay, injury issues, the importance of derby day and much more.
Here is everything he had to say:
on his new contract:
I'm really happy, really excited. I think it shows the alignment between the club and myself and the coaching staff that we're on this journey together and we enjoy working together. Now we have much higher ambitions and we want to fulfill them, so that’s the way that I look at it. As I said, I’m really pleased and grateful as well.
on not wanting to be anywhere else:
I couldn’t think of a better place to be to develop my career as a player, to experience an amazing football club with the people that I met and the experiences that I had. Now as a manager, that is been something far beyond and better than what I ever dreamed about probably.
on Martin Odegaard’s injury:
We need some more tests so let’s see what happens in the next day or so, this afternoon probably, and see what happens, what the extent of the injury is and how quickly we can get him back. He’s super positive about everything. We know Martin - he wants to be there every single day but we have to wait and see.
on whether Martin is hopeful that isn’t as bad as feared:
I’ll leave that to the doctor but he's willing, there's no question about that. He wants to be present every game and obviously in a big game like this one, but we need to make sure that we know first of all how good he can be or not.
on not ruling him out of the derby:
Players with 48 hours to go are always available but let's see what happens.
on Mikel Merino’s injury:
It’s better, it's a slow process because it's a bone and it takes a while to heal. He is progressing well and is already doing some stuff. He is working extremely hard and we're using this time to make sure that he understands a lot of things that he has a lot of questions about, and when he’s back he’s ready to go and impact the team.
on whether he’ll be back before the next international break:
We don't know honestly. It's very difficult to understand the healing of the bone. I think at the moment he doesn’t have a lot of symptoms so you can speed it up very quickly because he hasn't lost anything else but we have to wait and see.
on Gabriel Jesus returning to training:
Gabby was out there, he's got another session tomorrow and if everything goes well he will be ready to be selected in this squad which is great news for us.
on Riccardo Calafiori’s availability:
It's another one that we have to wait another day or so.
on Raheem Sterling and if he could be involved against Tottenham:
He looks great! First of all, because he’s got a big smile on his face, a lot of energy. He’s at it and wants to prove a point. When someone has got that in their belly, you sense it straight away. Obviously, I don’t need to discover anything about his quality and what he can bring to the team.
on wearing our away kit for this game:
It’s not ideal – we wanted to play with our home kit and our colours, but it’s not our decision. We’ll adapt, we did it against Villa and won, so hopefully it’s going to bring good luck as well.
on what Sterling has been like since arriving:
I see his hunger - he’s a player who wants to play every minute of every game, and when that’s not the case, he’s not happy. He loves football, it’s what he likes doing every single day and I see that. His commitment, the level of energy that he’s bringing to the team, and the quality is a big boost. You can feel that in the players as well when he walked through the door, we are better with him. He’s going to make us better.
on unlocking his goalscoring ability:
He has his ability and the credit to that is his, and the players that he’s got around him. You need that when you are one of the front players. Certainly, he’s had that intuition, that will and the ability to do that and I’m sure he’s going to impact the team.
on how the club has evolved in Mikel’s time here:
In the way that I think we all wanted [it to happen] because we all wanted a very different club. We are in the right direction; we have made some huge steps and we have a lot still to make. You sense that hunger from ownership to the board to all the players and staff here, and this is the aim and objective.
on if there is another club or country he would have left us for:
No, this is the emotional attachment that I have and that my family has, my kids have, the experience that I have and the involvement with the people. It’s too strong.
on if Ethan Nwaneri could be involved against Tottenham:
We have to adapt to [changes in the team], throughout the season we’re going to have these kind of situations. It happened very early, since the second game because when you look at the bench that we had against Brighton, it’s very different to the one that we probably would have expected. It’s the situation that we have, we have to face it, use the opportunities – the young kids have given us a lot of hope and right reasons as well to count on them, and we need to do it for sure.
on his best memories of the north London derby:
Probably afterwards, especially when you win at home and you celebrate with your supporters and you know how much it means. It’s something special and we have so many huge Arsenal supporters since the day that they were born and looking at our staff, we have some good examples around the first team as well. They come in after the game and you can see the emotion and what it means for them. It’s a privilege to have the power to contribute to making someone really happy.
on the respect he has for Ange Postecoglou:
I admire him. I respect him. I think he’s been an inspirational coach because he’s done things in his own way in various contexts and in various countries. He has a really unique way of thinking about the game and his philosophy, and I love it. He stands by it and I think he represents himself and the club in a really good way.
on how much Sterling has evolved since his time at Manchester City:
Obviously in his personal life a lot of things have changed since we were together. The first call I had with him, I knew straight away after 10 seconds, we had to bring him because he really wanted it. And that was my only question mark, what stage is he at in his career? I knew after 10 seconds - bring him here.
on if Mikel can build a legacy at Arsenal like Arsene Wenger and other successful managers:
Hopefully yes, but you’re talking about the best in the history of football, certainly in this country. My aim and motivation is to be the best version of myself, the best coach in the world ever for Arsenal. What the club needs, what those players need, what we need as a team to keep developing and achieve what we want - that’s the only objective.
on his message to Arsenal supporters:
Thank you. That’s what I would say. Thank you for the gratitude, for the time we have spent, for the trust and confidence they have shown and hopefully that can continue. We are here to make people happy and enjoy their passion which is to love and follow our football club. We are responsible to try and achieve that for them.
on how Kai Havertz has adapted to his role in the team:
He’s been great. Obviously it was a journey until that point that we navigated together, but nobody doubted the quality that he can bring. The success came because of his character, his personality and how he approaches every game, every situation, facing it and going for it. It’s a joy to have him.
on the size of the squad that we have:
It can be bigger, yes, but we have certain limitations that we know about. We have to do certain things, certain transactions and certain players have been with us for a long time and they needed a new challenge in their career. We have signed a few players, it’s been a bit different to the previous years, but I’m really happy with the quality of the squad. There are certain things that we cannot control and what happened in the last two weeks is extremely unlucky. We have to face it, but hopefully during the season it will be very different.
on how to approach a challenging period of the season:
Day by day. If we look at where we’re going to be at the end of May, tomorrow’s game that we have to play and the level and the challenges ahead, we cannot think like this. We’re going to run out of oxygen. I want to have the energy, the enthusiasm for the next day, the next game and prepare that in the best possible way and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go to Spurs with unbelievable energy and believe that we’re going to go there to be ourselves and try to win the game.
on the Tottenham v Manchester City game towards the end of last season:
I think I always have the faith. I know Ange a little bit and his team play to try to win the game. They had some big, huge chances and any other day it would be very different, there’s no question about that at all.
