Just over 24 hours before sending his team out to face West Ham United at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, Mikel Arteta was in front of the media at the Sobha Realty Training Centre to chat about the game.
He spoke about injuries and the Hammers under Graham Potter, as well as his reaction to the Champions League draw pitting us against PSV Eindhoven.
Here is everything he had to say:
on team news for Saturday:
No real news to be fair. The ones that are long-term remain not available, and the rest, no news.
on if Ben White’s ready to start:
He is ready to play. Whether to start or not is a decision we will make tomorrow, but he’s certainly available now to be a part of the group.
on being drawn against PSV in the Champions League:
We’ve played against them, they’re a really good team, we know that. They have experienced it and it will be very difficult like any other Champions League result that we could’ve got or any team, so we know what we’re facing. When you’re at this stage, every team is really good and when the time comes we’ll be ready for it.
on closing the gap to five points if we beat West Ham:
We have to do our job and it’s going to be a tough one tomorrow against West Ham. If we do that, we’ll be looking at that game on Sunday. With 13 games to go there’s still a lot to play for and you can see how difficult it is for everybody to win football matches, so we need to be there.
on if he’ll be glued to Man City v Liverpool on Sunday:
I’m glued to tomorrow’s game. That’s what I’m glued to and my full focus is just there.
on if he can relax watching those games:
Relax? No, especially when you are playing with these teams, you obviously cannot relax. I relax watching games that don’t interfere with our ability to win big trophies.
on what experiences we can draw from previous title races:
That the margins are so small and everything counts. We had numbers that, in any other Premier League title race, probably could’ve won it. We didn’t, so that shows you the level and the difficulty of it, but the fact that we experienced it really helps because we know what it’s going to take to do it.
on if he’s given Mikel Merino more notice about his position:
No, not to him or to other players, especially because I want the players, when they’re on the pitch, they’re feeling what they’re doing and taking initiative. I don’t want players thinking: ‘what if tomorrow I have to do certain things?’ That’s why I did it.
on if playing Merino up front was an experiment that paid off:
If something that we haven’t done or he hasn’t done in his career to try is called an experiment, that’s it. In the end, it’s trying to fit the qualities that we have within the squad, within the players. We want to deliver and what the game requires and what the opposition requires, I would take it more into that aspect than the other one, but after it has to work. If not, it’s not the right call.
on if we have any young forwards who could come through to the first team:
We have some other players training with us now lately. They’ve been in our system for a while but they’ve been very close and obviously we might have to use them. They look ready as well, which is a good thing.
on if the injuries can be an opportunity for younger players:
Yes for sure, and it can be at any moment. I spoke to them about it so they are ready for it.
on this game allowing us to put more pressure on Liverpool:
I see an opportunity for us to keep winning and keep making our journey to the goal that we want at the end of the season, which is to win it. That’s the only thing we can focus on.
on if this could be a big weekend in the title race:
I don’t like “ifs” in football or sport. Let’s do what we have to do, and if the “if” comes right, great, but let’s make sure that what is in our hands, we do it.
on if he feels momentum is swinging our way:
That’s we need and that’s a very important thing. When your energy and belief increases and the results are behind you, your performances are good and everybody is having that. After that shift in energy and belief, I think anything can happen.
on if he’s obsessed with winning the title:
I’m obsessed with doing everything that I possibly can every single day to achieve it, that’s my obsession. I’m very obsessed by the process of that one, it consumes my whole day! I guarantee you that! But it’s the process of how you get there, the natural outcome, I cannot control it.
on if he has to adapt his team talk to avoid complacency against West Ham:
I don’t think anybody is thinking that way because we are very experienced in the Premier League and how difficult every opponent is. We have a history of what happened last year here at home against them, so it’s a very different feeling.
on whether it was a gamble to put Mikel Merino up front:
Every time you play a player you are betting on that player. What is a bet – I’m prepared to bet a certain amount of money to earn, but not a lot to earn very little! In the end, it’s about putting players in positions and roles and surrounded by players that we believe make sense and it can work and they are comfortable there.
on if Bukayo Saka has had a holiday:
He did go, where he went is a question for him if he wants to answer that.
on if we trained with Merino as a striker this week:
We trained the last few weeks with different players there to be fair, and he’s been one of them, but with other the players as well because it’s how you can finish the game, how you start the game, how you change if the opponent does something different, and every three days we’re going to need different options.
on Raheem Sterling’s confidence:
It’s onto the next one, but Raheem is so experienced and like many other players that we know that what you did yesterday, whether it was really good or not, could be relevant to the next game or to the next action. He’s fully focused, he trained really good again this week and he’s ready to go again.
on if he can have a big impact:
Yes, and he needs to have it because we really need him.
on the difference between starting and using Merino as a sub:
We believed it was right for that context but then he made it right. Starting a game is very different, especially against a team with the ability to play in different ways with very different behaviours within different structures that they can use as well, and that’s what we have prepared for.
on if Saka or Martinelli could be back for the Champions League games in March:
I’m not sure, that’s a question for the doctors. They are both evolving really well, probably Gabi Martinelli is a bit ahead of Bukayo because of the extent of the injury, but then we will have to see the next steps and the previous weeks before that, how the boys are feeling and what we are prepared to do.
on what’s been going on with Takehiro Tomiyasu:
He’s been trying everything he possibly could to try to avoid [surgery]. We did that as well with the department. At some stage it wasn’t reacting as well as we needed it to, so we decided between all parties that the best thing to do was have surgery again. Unfortunately it’s going to keep him out for a long period again and it’s very sad because he is a player who lives for the game. He is really keen to play and be consistent, and when he is at his level he’s an incredible player for us.
on what the club can do to support him through this process:
We are constantly trying to do that, but as a foreign person you don’t have your family and relatives around you, you are on your own for many months. Especially for him, his life is football. When you understand what he does during the day, it’s just preparation for the next day, to be in the best possible condition. When injuries deny you that possibility to play and fulfil the purpose you have in your career, it’s very, very tough and hopefully he knows we are all here trying to help him but it’s tough. He needs to go through those moments, and I’ve been there, it’s a very lonely process.
on if the players have regained the sense that they can win the league:
Yes, I don’t know if we recovered or flicked a switch and said: ‘OK, what is the opportunity now to do something again?’ Different or special for [Kai], for the teammates, for all the effort we have put in for so long again, and everything that has happened. It’s been very re-energising again to say: ‘OK, let’s see if we can get together and fill any gaps we have in the team with different players and different ways.’
on if it feels any different going up against Liverpool instead of City:
We have been in different situations. Sometimes we’ve been leading, sometimes at this stage we have been behind and then we jumped a bit. Every year feels a little bit different. The ambition, the hope, the willingness, the energy is always there because the prize is so big.
on if he talks to the players about what Liverpool can do compared to what City did in previous title races:
Because Man City have done it for six or seven years, it is different, but to be fair [Liverpool] have been very consistent and exceptional in what they are doing. But it’s a long journey for everybody and we have to be there.
on if Sterling is struggling with confidence:
Hopefully not because we try to give him as much as possible. That’s a question for him but we are all behind him, we all want the best for him. He’s going to be really important so we need him at his best. We only need players with that mindset; to be here and impact the team.
on if Raheem seems happy in himself:
I see a player who is so experienced, he knows it’s about the next action, the next action and the next action. Apart from that there is nothing else to live. He is doing everything he possibly can to make it work.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
This article was originally published by a www.arsenal.com . Read the Original article here. .