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Here is every word from Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference before Arsenal take on Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup quarter-final
Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s match against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup quarter-final. With the hectic schedule over Christmas limiting time, the Gunners boss spoke to reporters immediately after his post-match Everton press conference.
The match against the Eagles, the schedule, the cup priority and Gabriel Jesus were the main focus of the discussions. The Brazilian has a great chance of starting his first game for the Gunners since his return from injury.
This will be Palace’s third game in seven days after their draw on Thursday in the Europa League and then defeat away to Leeds United on Saturday evening. The winner of the match will face Chelsea in a two-legged semi-final across January and February.
Here is every word from the Arsenal manager’s press conference:
Gabriel Jesus has made three appearances off the bench, do you think he’s ready to start?
Yes, he is. You can see now, not only in games, every day in training, how much he wants it. He's going to deserve a chance soon.
Have you been surprised at how sharp he's looked, considering how long he's been out?
No, because I was watching when he was seven months already on the pitch and the way he was moving and how much he wanted it. I think he wrote a beautiful letter there explaining what football means to him and how it affects his life. I think it was something beautiful.
How much could he shift the dynamic? Obviously, he's a very different player to Viktor, for example, and Mikel Merino. How much could he shift it and maybe unlock a few players that haven't quite hit their top form?
I think that's probably the biggest quality of Gabi, bringing people together, connecting with people and generating a lot of uncertainty in the opponent. When you see him today, the amount of spaces that he was involved in, that's his biggest quality. So we need to exploit that.
It's a quick turnaround for what is a really important game against Crystal Palace on Tuesday. They've played a lot of games, they've played Thursday, they've played today. How do you think that's going to affect how both teams go into that game on Tuesday?
We are used to it. I think it's the only week that we had a week to prepare. It was this week, the rest until February at least is going to be like this.
We are used to it, to face it. We have a beautiful opportunity to go into the semi-final of a competition. So we'll be ready.
Sorry for another one on Gabriel Jesus really quickly, but if he does play against Crystal Palace it will be his 100th Arsenal appearance. So I was just wondering if you could talk about the Gabi that came to Arsenal back in 2022 and the one that you see now.
Well it's been a really intense journey I would say. I think when he joined us, I think he lifted the belief, the spirit and the energy of the club and the team. I think he gave something very different to what we already had, and it was really impressive.
And then he had some very bad injuries that hasn't allowed him to have the consistency that we need from a very important player. But he's back, I think his fighting his spirit, he's decided to always prepare the best way. He's unbelievable and the team has got it now and we need to use it.
With so many fixtures you have this season, how important is the Carabao Cup competition to you? Because when you look at the fixtures ahead, when will you guys get a break?
Now the most important one is the Carabao Cup against Palace because it's the next game that we have. Take it game by game. Winning and performing every game helps you for the next one. So now full focus on that.
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