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Every word from Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal’s trip to Club Brugge
Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s game against Club Brugge in the Champions League from the Jan Breydel Stadium. The Gunners boss provided some insight into the squad ahead of the game.
Max Dowman suffered an ankle injury on the weekend, and in the following days, it has been revealed to be serious enough that Gabriel Jesus has now been registered in his place. Arteta provided an update on him and the likes of Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard, and William Saliba, who were also absent from open training.
There is a focus on potential rotation, for the game too, after the defeat at Aston Villa, citing some potential tiredness in the group.
Here is every word from the Arsenal manager’s press conference:
A couple of days since the first loss in 18 games on Saturday, how have the team reacted, and what's the mood been like?
It was strange because we do not lose that many. That is, I think, a moment as well to reflect and have some perspective about what we are doing. First of all, when you look at the reaction of the players when they are on the floor and the pain and what I felt in that moment seeing them, because I know how much they put in and how much they wanted.
It is difficult, but as well it's a reflection of who we are and what we want to get. And this has to help us to be a better team, to learn the lesson, to value what we are doing, first of all, as well. Because with all the difficulties that we have from the start of the season, where we are in the position where we are, both in the Champions League and the Premier League, is where we want to be and understand that you have to earn it every single day, and the margins are very, very small.
Sometimes it cannot be ideal to have a game so close because of recovery and injuries, but in this case is it a good thing so you can get back to winning ways?
Absolutely, and especially when you play a competition like the Champions League and how much we want to continue to do the job that we have started in the first five games. And tomorrow we are going to have a really tough match against an opponent here that especially at home has been very, very good.
They have a new manager. A new manager always brings new energy, new ideas. So we are prepared for that as well.
And tomorrow we have to show again that we are right at the top and be better than the opponent to beat them.
The news came out earlier that Gabriel Jesus has been brought back into the Champions League squad in place of Max Dowman because of an injury. Can you tell us about that situation and also the injury to Max?
Yes, so first of all, with Max, unfortunately, he picked up an injury last weekend, and he had to come off, so we did some scans, and he is going to be out for weeks. And then we have the situation of Gabi, which we are expecting to be training with us by the end of December, but Gabi has been pushing every single day, and he kept telling everybody I'm going to be earlier, earlier, earlier and he has done it. So thanks to his work and all the work that the medical staff have done with him throughout these months and we had the possibility to make a swap there.
We have done it, and on one side, you see Max and his situation, and on the other side, you see the joy and how happy Gabi is to be back in this competition with us.
And just finally from me on, Declan Rice, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard weren't pictured in training today. Are they available for the game tomorrow?
No, so Declan was ill so he was quite sick after the game already, and he hasn’t travelled with us, William is still not available and Leo again, he picked another knock in an area where he had the previous issue and I don't expect that it's going to be long but unfortunately, he cannot be with us.
How did you follow the recent events at Brugge with the new manager? Was it a surprise for you guys and does it affect your preparation?
Yeah, well obviously you start to look at all the games and analyse the manager and their identity and obviously the last performance they had was in the Champions League and in domestic competition and in the afternoon we get the news that they have a new manager so you have to adapt, it's not the first time that we are facing this situation so I start to think about what the possibilities are, look at his past and I start to obviously focus much more on what we have to do and the key things that we have to do to be able to adapt in relation to what they do especially in terms of their formation and the players that they're going to pick and I have to focus on what we have to do to be better than them to win the game.
How frustrating is it that you keep picking up these injuries with so many players coming back and for a variety of reasons, how frustrating is it?
Yeah, a big one, losing Max again, it's obviously not ideal with Leo that he's just coming back that we have to manage the minutes, Willy is still not there, we lost Big Gabi and we have other players that they could only play certain minutes like for example Richy the other day but it's a situation that we have managed that since the beginning of the season, we are in December so it's almost five months in a remarkable way and we're going to continue to do the same.
Is it bad luck? Is it fatigue or intensity of training? Why do you think?
No, training no because we don't have time to train so training is not there but obviously the fact that you are missing players, you are loading other players more that's a consequence to that and it's a really dangerous circle that one and on top of that we have some injuries that, okay, in terms of what happened in the past we are not having more injuries, the fact that we had some others that are long term that they haven't been with us since the beginning of the season but as well it's a test for the team and so far we have reacted very, very well to that.
Just on Max, obviously he's so young, how worrying is it that he's picked up an injury that seems to be quite serious if it's weeks?
Part of the journey, I mean at some point when you play at this level when you play in the position that he plays, when you play the manner that he plays it was going to happen and it happened one that okay it's not ideal he picked up weeks it could have been worse and learn from that and now use this time as well to continue to improve in his education, in everything that is related to professional football his habits, the way he needs to develop his physicality as well to be with us the understanding of the game, sometimes when you are away from the game you say I can't really live without it and how important it is so use those moments as well to get a reflection of where you are as well and give you a better force to go forward.
Just on the injuries, I know you've spent a lot of money in the summer, but obviously they're mounting up, especially in defence. Is there any chance you could look to go into the market and bring some more players in January?
At the moment we're just focusing on bringing the players back and hopefully it will be a matter of weeks and we know how important those weeks are going to be because we're going to come into the period where a lot of things start to get defined in that period, and hopefully we're going to have those players back.
We obviously saw Christian Norgaard came in the summer and his minutes this season have been slightly limited that place in the squad perhaps replacing Jorginho last season who brought experience and also played a lot as well is there a plan behind Norgaard's minutes and how he might get exposure in this game or future games and would you have liked to use him more than he has done so far?
Yes, but I'm really happy with what he's brought to the club especially to the team and everything that we needed to do in many areas, not only in the pitch what he has to do, he excels in the manner that we expected but it's very similar to Ben White or Myles they haven't played probably more than expected and sometimes when it is, because others are performing at that level I think it's positive for the team and maybe more difficult for the individual but very, very positive for the team.
You've faced a lot of questions already today on injuries I wonder if you could settle a debate that we've been having between us and that's if you could choose one Arsenal player that would never get injured who would that player be?
I leave that to you, you can guys can enjoy that conversation.
You were talking about the dangerous circle some of the players are playing a lot and maybe getting injured is this perhaps where you could look to rotate because you've got quite a set of fixtures coming up now, between Liverpool and next month, you've got Villa, so would this be something you might look out to tomorrow night?
We're trying to have the freshness in the squad and the players in the best conditions to perform at the highest level for example Viktor's injury, we are missing another two nines so Viktor played every minute since he came back almost without a pre-season, at some point he got injured then Mikel [Merino] had to do that role because Leo as well wasn't fit or Martinelli wasn't fit and you could see Mikel at the weekend that he needed some help because he was out of gas so that's the consequence of not having other players but the good thing again is the way we have managed so far to do that we have now after this a clean week which we haven't had for many many weeks and hopefully some players are back so that will be good oxygen for the team
Since the start of last season, there's been 93 injuries at Arsenal across the Premier League; only Brighton has had more than 97. Is that just luck? What do you think is the reason behind it?
Yeah well I think you have to separate the kind of injuries that they are and some of them they've been long term and acute injuries especially with some of the key players that keep you a lot of days out but yeah it's something that we are constantly looking at as I said as well we have played a lot of games with a lot of players missing that puts a lot of stress and then more injuries but we are on it and I'm really happy what we're doing in terms of the medical stuff and everything that we are trying to bring together but sometimes as well we need some things to go on our side
What have you looked into? What are the main takeaways that you've got from your findings from last season in terms of the amount of injuries?
Because it's not only one season it's as well some of the players that they have played over 150 games in two seasons so it starts to get overloaded and you start to ask them again and again and again to do that at some point they will break down and others because as well the moment that you have an injury you are more likely to have another injury especially long term injuries and that's been a consequence in some of the players as well so we're on it
There's been a suggestion that it's because the players have been overtrained. I know you sort of asked that earlier, but you just refute that, you don't believe that that's the case?
No, because we don't train. I mean, today we've done 20 minutes, so surely it's not because we overtrained the players.
Gyokeres has been on the bench for the past three games. Is tomorrow a good opportunity for him to start, do you think, and maybe get a goal?
Yeah we have to continue to manage his minutes he played 45 minutes the other day and let's see how everybody is tomorrow and make that decision.
On Declan Rice you said the other week it's quite hard to how do you rest him? And now he's a bit unwell is that a chance to sort of say just go away for a few days get some sunshine?
I think he needed more a bed than sunshine because he wasn't feeling good at all so, he will have a couple of days to rest and to get his body right but today already he was very keen to be able to play and unfortunately he's not able to do that.
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