Every word Mikel Arteta said on Chelsea vs Arsenal, Saliba and Trossard doubts and other issues

Mikel Arteta faced the press ahead of Arsenal's match against Chelsea and football.london has transcribed everything that was said, including the latest injury news

Mikel Arteta spoke to the press ahead of the League Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea. The Arsenal boss provided updates on several players, including Riccardo Calafiori, Cristhian Mosquera, Piero Hincapie and Max Dowman.

The cup competition might not be the top of the club’s ambitions, but it remains a chance to win some silverware early in the season to become a springboard for the Premier League run-in. Arteta is keen to make a statement again with a result on Wednesday.

Here is every word Mikel Arteta said in Friday’s press conference:

So on Piero and Calafiori. We can go through bit by bit. Shall we start with those?

Yeah, those two not available yet, and the other doubts that we have are Willy [Saliba] and Leo [Trossard].

Okay, so Hincapie first, he had a scan yesterday, do you know a bit more about the problem or how long?

We don't know yet.

Don't know yet, and Calafiori, how many more?

He’s progressing, but we don't know. I think it will matter for a few weeks probably, but we don't know exactly when.

Okay, and Saliba and Trossard are obviously not part of the FA Cup squad, so what's the issue with them?

Yeah, those two are a doubt.

A doubt because...

Because they're not fit enough.

Because... Just bumps and bruises, anything serious?

No.

I forgot how much fun this was! And Max Dowman as well, for his behalf, where is he?

Very similar to Mosquera as well, you see I'm giving you...

Yes, oh thank you! Wow, it's worth coming!

So, very similar injury, very similar timeframes, and both of them did really well, but they're not training yet, so they're still a few weeks away.

There was a lot of narratives around your game on the weekends, and one of the interesting ones that maybe did get lost a little bit was in terms of Kai.

Yeah.

A word on him, because he's not started for almost a year, but you wouldn't know it to look at him. How impressed are you with his timing, his touch, and also the chemistry that he just seems to have with the players around him? He's going to be pretty key for you, isn't he, over the next few months?

Yeah, so we missed him a lot. A year is a long time in football, but as you said, the way he's come back, he looks really fit, really confident. He's such an intelligent player that, straight away, he's someone that connects with the players really naturally.

And you can tell how much they love him as well, because every time he was in and around the box, everyone was jumping on their seats, on the bench. So, yeah, we are so happy to have him. He's going to help us so much, and now we have to keep him fit.

Is he okay? You've come through 20 minutes, is he ready to start, not quite ready? How do you plan the next few weeks?

We have to manage his minutes now, but he had a good block of 20-25 minutes the other day. He trained really well today again, and it's now a case of building his robustness and making sure that he's available for every game.

I spoke to Liam Rosenior yesterday and was reminded that you two met in an FA Cup final.

Yeah, I've seen a few pictures of that. That's the beauty of football, you know. Two very different careers, but at the end, facing each other.

Have you been spoken since? Do you know him well?

No, I know people that have worked with him. I know people that have been close to him in his journey, especially as a coach. And they talk really highly of him. So, yeah, wish him all the best apart from tomorrow.

I also spoke to him because there's a lot of noise and narrative around the fact that he'd been given such a big job without having that experience. Clearly, he's coached in France, but he has not having the experience of managing in the top flight. When you got that opportunity, can you remember back those six years ago?

There's that sense that he wants to prove people wrong. That's part of his motivation and I wondered what yours was. In terms of him looking at you, he said he would love to think that he'd be there in six years and have done what you've done.

Well, personally, my motivation was to help the club and transform the club. That was it, not to prove people wrong. That, in my case, wasn't a motivation.

Obviously they know him really well because they have worked together with him for a few years now. So they've made that decision based, for sure, because of his capacity and because they believe that he deserves and is the best person to lead that project.

And just finally for me, semi-final at this stage of the competition last year and I think by your own admission didn't do yourselves justice in that game against Newcastle. Is that the itch that just needs to be scratched? Is that the thing that's going to push this side or help push this side tomorrow evening?

Yes. Football will give you another chance. We've been really consistent again in the competition and now we have to knock another big team out of the competition to be in the final.

That's the mission. Hopefully we'll learn from last year because it was painful, especially the manner that the games went and the amount of chances that we missed not to go through. But hopefully this year we are better and especially more efficient.

Just on the semi-final again, do you think getting to a semi-final at this stage of the season with the potential for reaching a final can help with the tension when you're trying to get over the line in other competitions?

Well, the more you are involved in these kind of games the better because it gives you a nudge. It brings the team a different kind of energy and it gives you the sense that the objective is very, very close and that's a massive motivation for everybody. We know that we are two games away from playing a final.

We have to go game by game, and the first one is Stamford Bridge, and we know we have a really tough opponent in front.

On Noni Madueke against Portsmouth, a mixed day for him. He lost the ball for the opening goal and missed the penalty but also two good corners for assists. Is that just part of the journey?

Yes, well he was very influential as you said in some aspects very, very positive. In some other things that we need to improve in terms of the consistency at the level of threat that he provides to the team I think is remarkable.

With it being a semi-final, when you were at Manchester City Pep always took this competition very seriously. There was a feeling that if you get one trophy under your belt it maybe eases the pressure and stops everyone worrying about whether you're going to win anything for the whole season. Is that the way you're looking at it going into this semi-final?

Yes, I know that you have to be better than the opposition, tomorrow and that's what we have to do. The rest is not in our control so we have prepared the game really well. The boys are really motivated and at it because we can sense that that's what we want to be and we have to make another step in order to achieve what we want and that's the objective tomorrow.

I was going to say quadruple, but I'll save that for another day. Being a semi-final though, your team selection from a busy week. I remember your former boss here Arsene Wenger used to pick a League Cup team and stick with it all the way through even to the final.

Most notably in 2007 against Chelsea. Would you do that? Are you going to stick with your team you play in the League Cup thus far or would you start to bring more of the big names back into the team?

In my case we cannot do that because obviously players have to be available to be able to pick them there. I don't believe in players for competitions. I believe that we have competition and we want to compete in our competition with the best moment of the players that we have in our resource and that's what we try to do.

I spoke to Liam Rosenior yesterday and I mentioned your set-pieces. I said Arsenal are very good at set-pieces. Some people call them set-piece FC. He said no, no, no. Arsenal are very good at everything.

That's what we try to do. Some things will be very good and some will be excellent but certainly that's the objective. The better we are in every phase the bigger the chances to win.

Last one, a departure from the club. Not at the moment but at the end of the season. Someone you've played with and had alongside you, Per Mertesacker. Just pay tribute to him if you would.

It's been 15 years at the club. We were teammates, we were friends, we were captains together. We shared this incredible project together in a different role.

Him as an academy director and me as a manager. I enjoy every minute of it. I think it's someone that transmits the values of this football club.

It's ambition and everything that is related to it in the best manner. Very thankful. We had a great time together.

For sure as well he's made that decision. I wish him the best of luck for the next chapter because I'm sure it's going to be a success.

When you were at Man City there were two seasons where the team won the Carabao Cup and then went on to a league title too. Do you remember that cup win giving the squad a boost and pushing them on into the final months to the title?

Yes, as I said before, when you get to these stages in the competition, you get to the final, and you go over the line and win it. It brings energy, it brings belief and the sense that everybody is very important and playing part of that. I think it's something when you get there and win it everybody remembers and if not, nobody does. So once you get there, get the job done.

You've obviously experienced a great deal in the six years you've been here. Is this the first season you can remember having this kind of squad depth, where you haven't had to maybe... where you can focus on all four competitions without worrying about weakening another one?

Yes, at the end you have to try to manage the squad and the individuals in the best way. I think we are sharing the minutes while we remain very, very competitive and that's what we have to try to do. Tomorrow we have another opportunity with a player that will start and finish the game and it will continue like this until May because it's going to be a game every three days.

You mentioned earlier your motivation when you came to Arsenal was to transform the football club. What do you need from those around you, your bosses, your players, your colleagues to allow that to happen?

For the position that we are in and the perception that we had as well internally and socially about where the club was in every sense and bring it back to the very, very top in every level and win a lot of big trophies.

Can I ask you about a good friend of yours, Xabi Alonso, who lost his job yesterday. Your reflections on him as a manager, a person, any message you want to add to that?

Well, I don't have too many details about the situation, so I don't know whether it was Xabi's decision to leave or it was the club's decision. It's very difficult to give an opinion there, obviously. Whatever the decision is, just wish Xabi all the very best because he's a top person and an incredible coach and I'm sure that whatever he decides to do in the future, again, will be top.

Can I just check what the issue of Calafiori is? What is that? The issue of Calafiori.

It was a muscle injury.

OK, thank you. And I wanted to ask about Bukayo Saka as well. I noticed a few years ago you mentioned when he was getting kicked a lot you had to maybe train the way he received the ball, how he kind of used his body in those challenges and it seems like he's got more robust every year. So I was just wondering how you went about training that with him and what focus you had.

Well, every position brings challenges, and the opposition learns from you as well, and they try to always stop you in the most efficient way, and you need to have solutions against each opponent to be efficient and to beat them.

This season, he was always creating chances early on but his numbers have really started to kick on in recent weeks. How have you viewed how he's played throughout this season?

Well, I think the impact that B has consistently is remarkable. It's very difficult to see a player in this position constantly doing what he's doing. It's great for the team and the players around him to support that, but I think, again, this season has been really good.

You mentioned that you don't believe in players for competitions. I think so often we think about the cup goalkeepers quite often and number two goalkeepers coming in for those cup competitions.

So is what you're effectively saying that Kepa and David Raya are not that and that there could be a chance that either of them might play in the cup competitions?

Well, it's because I think our job, or my job, is to prepare the team in the best possible way to win the competition and every competition that we are in. And every game is different. Every game requires different qualities and players and players have moments when they are really high, when they don't have that much confidence or minutes.

And every case is different. And the keepers on top of that is a very particular case as well because obviously they have less opportunities than other players to play throughout every week. But we try to treat them in that sense.

And you've had Kai come back. I'll ask you about styles of centre-forwards. Gabi J has played a few starts this season. In fact, when he started it against Palace, it was the highest expected goals that you've recorded in a single game. He tends to be a centre-forward that kind of drops in and helps with build-up. Do you think that under your style/system that that's the type of centre-forward that flourishes the most at the moment?

Depending on the position. If we play against a very low block and you have a nine that drops then you have no presence in the box. I think, again, every opposition requires a different analysis and qualities. But Gabi's is not only to drop as well. He has many others [qualities] like Viktor and Kai.

Arsenal is obviously having a tremendous season on top of the Premier League Champions League, where obviously it's been a few years without a trophy. Just what would it mean to you, because this is the first one you can win this season, what would it mean to you personally to get this competition won?

I will tell you when that happens. At the end, it's about how I feel towards putting everything that we have to win it. I feel, again, really motivated.

We're looking forward to a big game tomorrow and how we're going to behave in these scenarios to achieve what we want.

Do you feel like it's all that maybe Arsenal have to win it because there's a danger that if they don't win this one there's people questioning whether we can get these trophies over the line?

I understand that, but there's a lot of clubs that have to, have to, have to. I think it's going to be one in each and the rest won't do it. So we'll try to be those.