Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal vs Tottenham, Igor Tudor, title backlash, injury boost

Here is every word Mikel Arteta said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s clash with Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby. It will be the first meeting with new Spurs coach Igor Tudor, who has had ample time to bed in and prepare his side.

There were updates on the latest team news, including Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz. Spurs are also without considerable numbers, and both sides remain in big trouble form-wise, with the Gunners’ title hopes being shaken.

Arteta gave plenty of his thoughts on the reaction from the draw, explaining his side conceding low expected goals shots on target and further comments on the state of his squad.

Here is every word from the press conference:

Any new team news from Wolves?

Nope.

You mentioned before the game that Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard had a chance for this weekend. What's the latest with them? Are they available?

Well, we have to wait until tomorrow but there is a big possibility that they are available.

Fantastic news. But Bukayo Saka, talking about fantastic news, new contract for him. A lot of your key players have committed their long-term futures to the club. But did this one in particular feel a little bit extra special?

I think they are all very important. We are very happy that the players are feeling in such a strong way about the club and what we are doing, and the way the team treats it, and the fact that we can continue to improve, and we are going to win together. We got it clear since it took very, very little and for him to make that decision and the club to be so aligned with him, I think it's a very positive thing.

Mikel, it was clearly an emotional end to the night at Wolves on Wednesday. I'm sure you've seen the headlines, Arsenal have blown it, Arsenal have bottled it. But from what you've seen with your players, how have they reacted since and have you seen anything in their mentality since then and over the past couple of weeks, that's concerned you or worried you at all?

What I've seen is a tremendous reaction again, and I'm not surprised at all. I mean, when you lose points in the last kick of the game again, in a very unpredictable manner, I would say, because to predict somebody with a 0.02 expected goal shot to concede an equaliser in the manner that we did it, nobody can really understand that. But this is football, that's the beauty of it.

And that was a chapter. So, we have a long season, Chapter 27 says, OK, we go, and we go in this manner. What I'm very interested in is the next one, what we are made of, what we love about this and how we write our own destiny from here going forward.

And that's it. And you have to react to that because life moves on, the result has to stay unfortunate as it was. There is nothing we can do, what we can do is adapt to what's going to happen next.

Talking about chapters, you looked at the fans at the end of that game. They looked totally crestfallen, like it may be the end for Arsenal. But clearly there's still a long way to go. What would your message be to those fans just now?

Because the immediate reaction is tough. You know, you put so much, you look at the first half and actually what happened in the game, and it was very post-match as well, about the standards that we showed, it was much better than expected. But it's still not enough to the standards that we required.

Very difficult to understand. So it is a shock in the system. But they've been incredibly good with that.

And yeah, we wanted to give them the victory. We couldn't and we have to move on.

You say move on, but it's a small matter of a North London derby next. Tottenham may see this as an opportunity to dent your title chances. But from your perspective, is this almost maybe the perfect fixture for Arsenal after what's happened in the last couple of games?

It's the one we have after and it's the one that we cannot wait to play. If we could play today, I think we'd all love to play today and to get that feeling that we have in our tummies and use it in the right way. And we have to show on Sunday.

How big a challenge is it preparing for this game, particularly that they've got a new manager? Because I'm sure you would have prepared for Tottenham Hotspur knowing that Thomas Frank is in charge. And this is now his first game...

Well, I think it's happened seven times already to us this season. So we are getting used to it. Yeah, we have analysed everything that he's done in his career in different clubs, different formations, the players that they have available.

And from there, of course, we will have the capacity to adapt in relation to what the game requires. But the main focus as well is on what we have to do to win.

Finally, for me, I'm sure you've seen the incident in midweek involving Vinicius Jr. Just more on a general thing. Have you had conversations with your players if an incident like that was to arise during a game?

And have you spoken about what would happen in an instance like that? For example, if they said, I want to walk off the pitch, I don't want to play. Is that something that you support?

Well, that's why we have meetings with the Premier League or UEFA before the season starts to make sure that everybody is very aware of the protocols and what we expect from each other. Obviously, there is no room for racism in this sport. I think we need to stick to that.

And then the manner of acting, I think you have to go case-by-case to understand what's the best option.

Obviously, it's easy to over-analyse things when a team drops points. I want to talk about something you just mentioned to Sky there about concealing late. The late goal against Wolves, obviously, no one could have predicted that, and it came in a very random situation.

But we've got Liverpool, Sunderland and Man Utd. Goals conceded after the 18-minute mark. Do you believe these are all isolated incidents from these states?

Or do you believe that towards the end, it might come to the Arsenal to defend too much, soak up too much pressure and there's something that can be fixed?

I think every game has had different situations. We have one as well against Palace in the Carabao Cup, as well on the bench or something. So, yeah, there are different situations to analyse.

Certainly, it's not the intention to defend any result. That's not the mindset of the players. Sometimes you have to be crazy with your position.

And sometimes, because you are not doing exactly what the game demands in certain aspects with the ball, which is more what happened on that one. But soaking pressure without conceding a single shot as well, which is the reality of what happened. The Villa one was, in my opinion, very different in the last seven or eight minutes of that game.

We've seen Zubimendi and Timbers’ stats there, the highest outfield players for the minutes this season. And we could say, as we approach 12 games left, they're looking fatigued and they’ve dropped, which is normal.

For me, they look great.

They do, obviously. It's normal for some players to drop. But I've asked you previously about Norgaard, and I'm going to ask you again.

When it comes to sometimes when players do that regular drop in performance, what are you assessing ahead of picking a team that maybe Norgaard can't come in sometimes?

Well, we played with Christian, Declan has played there as well. We have changed a lot of players in the team. So it's depending on the kind of game that we play.

Who do we believe is in the best condition? And that's, as you said, physically, mentally, but technically and tactically to deliver what we require.

Well, over the last 48 hours, as you've already been asked, people are saying, have asked have you bottled or blown the title. I was wondering, is everybody losing a bit of perspective here? Because you're still 5 points clear at the top, you're still through in the Champions League, you're still into the cup final, and you're still in the FA Cup. Do you think the wider world is using a bit of perspective.

No, because I think everybody has their own opinion, and their perspective is the right one. I think if we all have an individual book, I don't know what your book would say. What you predicted three months ago, five, seven, eight it would be very interesting to go through yours and understand how you predicted or how you see the season going.

We have ourselves a very clear instruction. We have to live the present. What we did in the past is great, but we have to live the present, and the present is beautiful.

We are exactly what we want to be in every competition, and what is there to play, we need to earn it, like we've done in the last seven or eight months.

So you're a better manager now than you were this time last year. Is it just now for you about keeping calm, keeping everybody else calm?

Yeah, keeping calm, keeping my eyes open, my ears open, and understanding what the players need to give their best. That's it. One of the things that we have to tweak every day, every game, to keep doing what we are doing, which is winning a lot of games and being in the position that we want to be.

You used four words just now, which I thought were very interesting. Write your own destiny.

I'll ask the first one, write your own destiny. For me, this North London derby is one of the biggest in decades. I know they’ve won the title at White Hart Lane, but with Spurs possibly in a relegation fight, you going for the title. Is it the biggest North London derby for a long, long time?

I don't know. For us, it's the most important one because it's the one that we have in a few days' time and the one that is going to give us the chance to be closer to achieve what we want.

Supporters will be expecting a reaction after a disappointing result in midweek. It's going to be a tense and emotional game in the North London derby, as it always is. Can you use those feelings in a positive way?

That's what we are trying to do. The instant reaction, first of all, is pain, and after that is, OK, what can I do about it? And that's it.

There is no other thing that we have to do. Now what we have to do is perform on the pitch. The words are clear.

I was a player. Love me when I draw or when I lose. When I win, to love you when I win is very, very easy. You have to love the players and be next to them when they need it the most.

Did you have to love them a lot after the game the other night? You were seen trying to keep the players calm towards the back. Were you surprised with how the tension or the game situation seemed to get to your players?

No, because I know how much they want it, and that's part of it. When you are so keen to achieve what you want to do and you are putting so much throughout the season, every single day, to get closer and closer to your objective, you are living with that passion. That's very normal.

And this one is off the pitch. I'm not sure if you've seen it. Wolves posted a TikTok mocking the way the game played out the other night and how things felt to you.

Have you seen it? And what do you make of situations like that when clubs post things towards other clubs?

No, what I read is the press conference of Rob, the manager, before the game and what he said about us and why he texted me. He thinks that we are the best team in the league by far. I'm much more interested about that than any other thing that I don't know who posts or whatever, especially because I don't read it.

Can I ask you about game states and the idea of taking one goal leading games? What are the core principles for you when your team takes a lead in the game? What do you want to follow next? I know that game states throughout different periods...

Score the second and the third one.

What are you expecting the players to do to go on to achieve that next goal?

Attack better, be more dominant in the high press, dominate all the rest of the play, don't give unnecessary fouls so the goalkeeper is going to start to put balls in the line and put the two centre-backs up. Dominate all the chaos situations, all the things that we want to do. Keep the ball under pressure.

Since the start of the last season, Arsenal have dropped 28 points from winning positions in games. What have you identified from the analysis, from the retrospect, that has led to that and what is being done to address that?

If we address that, we are the best team in the world and unstoppable because we will be 30 points or 32 points ahead of everybody else.

You mentioned margins after the Wolves game and it's a word you've used before as well. I was wondering when you look at those margins and wanting to widen them, is it something you see as something happening by chance with goals or is it deeper than that?

Goals for or against?

Both.

Well, against, it's very unpredictable to predict the kind of goals that we conceded.

The Brentford one from a throw-in, much more. What we can do before that to prevent that happening is still improvable. And in the attacking process, the first half we had very different outcomes.

In the second half as well, it was a very, very open situation. We didn't even finish with a chance. So, a lot of room to improve.

And just on Saka and Havertz, you said Havertz has a possibility of being available and both of those players have played as number 10s recently. I was just wondering, with them both available, would you, I guess, like using them in a combination that you haven't so far? So, I don't know, with Kai being able to...

Yeah, we can. Depends as well on the availability of those players in terms of the load that he can absorb. Bukayo was okay to start the game, but we knew that he could not finish the game, so we had to get him out because he was going to start to cramp or take a risk with the previous injury that he had, and we didn't want to do that.

So, depending on the state of the player, how much we can use them.

Is Leo okay for Sunday?

Yeah, he's fine, yeah.

And you've had a lot of big players sign long-term contracts over the last six months which shows the faith they have in the club. Do you need to now win trophies for that to remain the place and players to still be convinced that this is the right place?

Well, up to now, that hasn't been the driving force probably for them to make that decision. So, we'll see from here forward. I don't know.

And for the players, obviously, this is the fourth season in a row that you're coming into this time of season still being in the thick end of the title race. Do you think it's becoming mentally tougher or is it sort of an advantage having had those experiences?

I think it's becoming more and more exciting because that means that you are closer. The more repeatedly you are in these kinds of positions, you're going to win it. The same in the Champions League.

If you don't get to the quarter-finals for, how long was it? 20 years? Or the semi-final.

It's impossible. You have no chance. You can dream whatever, but you have no chance.

So, first of all, you have to be there. And then in April or May, it will get decided who is the best and who can get over the line.

You mentioned the xG of our first awards goal. You conceded a lot of low xG goals this season. More than any other team. Can you explain why that's happening? Is this a coincidence or is there something you're doing wrong?

Probably a bit of both. I think we'll have to go goal by goal. Somebody from a really low scoring position can put the ball in the top bin.

What are the odds for that to happen? So, it's like putting the ball in the top corner and costing you points.

I don't know. It depends on the players here in this league. They have a lot of quality as well. So, that's a clue to that.

You conceded quite a high proportion of your shots and xG chances from outside the box. Can you be the best team defending in the penalty area and still be the best team defending outside the penalty area?

Yeah, that's what we want. There are certain margins there in terms of when we approach the player, the space that you cover in relation to the defender and the keeper. So, there are things that we are constantly working on and try to improve them.