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Here is every word from Mikel Arteta’s pre-match press conference ahead of Arsenal taking on Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League
Mikel Arteta spoke to the media ahead of his Arsenal side’s clash with Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League last-16. The Gunners travel to the BayArena looking to secure a strong result in the first leg before returning to the Emirates Stadium next week.
There are big expectations on Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, with the competition shaping up nicely for the Premier League leaders. Arteta confirmed that he has welcomed back several players to the squad, with decisions still to be made on some and on how long they can feature for.
The schedule is starting to get to the business end of the campaign, and Arteta needs to keep his side fit. There was naturally attention on the plans to maximise the broader numbers of his squad over these next two-plus months.
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Here is every word from the pre-match press conference:
Into the knockout stages of the Champions League, does the messaging to the players change at this point in the competition?
Yeah, obviously, you start the second part of the campaign, and you know what is at stake. We start to play games where you are in or you are out, but there is no margin for manoeuvre, so we're going to face a very difficult contest tomorrow against a really good team.
Can I just run through some fitness questions with you, some of the players? So, Martin Odegaard, is he out or available?
He's out.
And from the weekend, Leandro Trossard and Ricardo Calafiori had to come off early. Are they available?
Yeah, those two are a possibility that they are available, and we'll see tomorrow how we use them.
And then I'll do it in the pairs they play. William Saliba and Gabriel, are they both available?
Yes.
And Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi?
Yes.
And you have a 100% win record in the Champions League. In other sports you have to win every game to lift the trophy. Is that something you can challenge this group of players with?
Yeah, the only thing you can take it is game by game and try to, tomorrow, be better than the opposition and then the right to win. We always talk about that. Obviously, we play so many games in different competitions.
In the next three games, you're going to play in three different competitions, competing against different opponents. You have to adapt to that. You have to, very early in the match, understand what the game is going to require, adapt to it and be better than them.
In this competition, Myles Lewis-Skelly started six of the eight games in this competition but found it a bit harder to start in the Premier League. I think he started one. What is the reason for that? And because of last season, have you had to manage his expectations a little bit during this campaign?
Yeah, every season is different. He had very good moments in this season. He had other moments when he hasn't played in that much. Obviously, a few days ago, in the FA Cup, he was suspended and he could not play. So, there are various reasons. Sometimes, as well, the good form of your teammates. There's a lot of factors that contribute to that. But he's doing well.
Two years ago, at this stage, we were talking about this team not having won a knockout game for, I think, 13 years. Last season, we were talking about them not winning a semi-final for 16 years. Do you think this team is in a different place now, that it belongs at this level? You've kind of established yourself at the business end of this competition.
I believe so. This is football and you have to show it tomorrow night. I know that you have to be so clear what the team is going to demand. You need to perform on the day. Champions League is about the day. Within that day, there are moments. You have to be better than the opponent.
Do you sense it from the squad, though, that mentally, they're better prepared? They feel they belong at this level now?
They certainly have more experience in the competition. When I joined in, they were a big part of the team. They’d never played in this competition. That's obviously something that is necessary, like in any other competition. They understand it better. Now we have to perform.
Do you feel like they've learned a lot from last season's Champions League run and the one before? I remember last year you spoke about PSG and the number of times they've not made it. Do you feel like the squad have learned a lot from last season they can take into this run now?
Yes, you learn all the things that you did well and the reason why you are there. There are things that you can improve. But then every game and every time will be so specific that it's so difficult to replicate.
You can have certain memories, but actually you have to apply your learnings in that moment. That window is very small and you have to be very efficient.
We obviously saw the FA Cup draw the other night, which I think in the fan base has stirred up talk of the quadruple again. Is that something you encourage your players to talk about or do you say, look, don't talk about this?
No, I don't use that phrase, don't talk about it. I don't know what they talk about when I'm not there. We all know the difficulty of every competition. It starts tomorrow. We are changing from competition to competition every three days. So far, we've done so well, and we need to continue to do that.
We just had Kai in here talking about this club where he spent so much of his young life and his career. I just wondered, how much did you see of Kai when he was here at Bayer Leverkusen and what were your impressions of him as a young player?
Well, not too much to be fair because in our league and with the amount of games that we play, we don't have much time to analyse an individual player in a different country. But I did speak to him. He spent 10 incredible years here.
The way he talks about the club, the people here, the culture, what he's learned and how far this journey was for him to continue his next chapter in England was capital. And yeah, a lot of learnings. And I'm glad to see how people are receiving the moment he's walking around the building. And I'm not surprised.
Obviously, he had some minutes at the weekend. How confident and happy are you that he's really approaching this run in his best condition?
Yeah, now it's been three weeks that he has total consistency in terms of training, preparation and game time. And we're going to continue to roll with that because we know how Kai can impact his team.
Kai spoke as well about how difficult the last year has been with his injuries. What's it been like to manage him during this period? Have you had to pick him up? Has it been something you've had to pay a lot of attention to even while he's been out?
Yeah, it's been something new for him. When you look at his injury record, it's just blank. He never had a muscle injury. And last year he had his hamstring injury that required the surgery and then the knee injury. So it's been a tough period. But as well, a lot of great things happened in his private life as well.
When you talk about a 15-20 year career, you're going to have to go through these moments. If there is a person that has the right combination of humbleness, patience, love for the game and a competitive edge, that's certainly Kai. He had difficult moments, but that's why we are here and all his teammates and family are there. Now he needs to really enjoy all the work that he's put in to see the results at the end of the season.
With the Champions League, we get to see a few minutes of the open training sessions before the match. Today there was a clip of you slapping Declan Rice’s back.
In these training sessions, there's often a lot of giggles, a lot of camaraderie. What's the kind of rationale behind doing all those kind of things?
They very gently suggested that we have to go through that because of something that happened a few days ago. A bit of banter, a bit of fun, and they were right to do it.
I'm not meaning that specific example, I'm just saying in general in these sessions, there seems to be a lot of you or Heinze getting involved, quite a lot of fun. What's the impact of doing that?
It's the interaction that we have with the players. We love to start working with them. I think that feeling is from both sides because they know how much we care about them.
The level of demands go very closely with the level of support that they get. I think the better that connection is, the bigger the chance is to achieve what we want.
In some ways, does that show the camaraderie that is around this team and you guys in this present moment?
I don't know, that's a part probably that you guys can't see, but there is so much that is going on every single day. Some beautiful moments that are very tough as well, but the objective that we have is clear. We have a fantastic group of people to do it and obviously a fantastic group of players.
Arsenal are flying high, doing very well in the Premier League and playing brilliant football in the Champions League. The fans are dreaming again. They've lived through this moment before, where everything looked possible but somehow slipped away. As the leader of this project, do you sometimes have this fear that everything could somehow slip away or do you genuinely feel that this group of players could write a different story for Arsenal Football Club?
I live the present and I prepare to what I expect and what I feel every single day with optimism, putting everything that I have and trying to transmit and inspire those players to feel the same way. This is football. We have to do it.
There is so much to do. There is a lot that we have done, but the important part is coming now and it starts tomorrow.
A good friend of yours, Xabi Alonso, had a very successful time here in Leverkusen. My question is, did you talk to him about what you have to expect here tomorrow?
I didn't want to put him in that position, and I don't think it would have been fair. Obviously, I have spoken a lot, and I admire incredibly what he did for this group of players because it was something historic and unique. But no, I haven't had the courage to speak to him and put him in that situation because I know how he feels about the club and as well because I think we have two players as well that have been with this club recently, with this team, and they give us quite a lot of information.
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