Arteta on maintaining Arsenal's level and his deliberately vague team news updates
Today at 04:13 AM
In the second half of his pre-Preston press conference, Mikel Arteta touched on the importance of taking all four competitions seriously, the joy he experienced winning the FA Cup and why it’s his job to obfuscate when it comes to injury updates.
Here’s what he had to say…
On how special it was lifting the FA Cup in 2020…
It was, it was such a special moment – a first trophy as a manager. Especially with what we were going through as a club in that moment after Covid, which was an extremely difficult experience for all of us, so to bring some joy, unfortunately, not being able to share it with our supporters live, but it was a great memory.
On how hard it is to give preferential treatment to the cup competitions when you’re competing for the title…
Maintaining the level, maintaining the hunger, maintaining the energy of a football team is extremely tricky. When you think that you have everything, suddenly something happens and it comes down, so you have to be really alert – every training session, every decision, every game is so important because at the end what it is that energises you is playing well, having a good feeling and actually winning. You have to really look at every circumstance because it really affects the team. When it comes to this competition the best thing we can do is perform really good have a good feeling about it and win. There is nothing better we can do.
On how good it is having a generation of keepers teenagers who can step up…
We have to build that, especially with Jack [Porter] who we threw in there [against Bolton] much earlier than we actually wanted. Okay, it worked out and it was a beautiful day but it’s not ideal. You want to build something long-term, it’s something that has to be built brick-by-brick, they have to go through the right steps, do those steps really solid to be able to play at the level we want them. That’s what we want to do, it takes a while but we have some good potential there now.
On whether it’s possible to win all four trophies…
We certainly have to try but that means if you win a couple of them, you win three, then four, give yourself the best possible chance, that’s for sure.
On how much his injury updates are about mind games or marginal gains…
That’s my job, innit. For me, I’d tell you everything but it has consequences, I have to be very careful, sometimes I can tell you a player is going to be a few weeks and it’s a few months, then what happens? Sometimes I don’t know if a player is going to be fit in two days time when we do a press conference, sometimes, when I know, I’m not going to lie to you, I’m not going to say ‘he’s not fit’ and then play him on Saturday. I would never do that. But if I am certain or I don’t want to tell you, I will keep you guessing. This is my job. But also to keep these guys alert, it’s important.
On it being a playful tactic…
I don’t want to make it easy for nobody. If the opponent has to work and prepare, make sure they do their homework, like I have to. I wish I knew their starting eleven, the bench, the subs but I don’t. It’s our job to guess and work and do our jobs like we have to.
On how difficult it is coming into a big club and making a mark…
It’s very demanding and even if you do an incredible job, your job is going to be judged on whether you win or not, and if you win more than the exceptional teams already doing it in this league who have been doing it for nine years. That is the level. Nobody is going to value whether you transformed something, if they do it’s for a period of time, and even if you renew your contract, you can be in that position a few months later. We’ve seen that, it’s the reality of our job, we’re sitting here and we know that’s the case.
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