Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on the fitness of Gabriel, the challenge of facing Everton and the recent form of Bukayo Saka
Sobha Realty Training Centre, London Colney, London, UK
Sobha Realty Training Centre, London Colney, London, UK
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00:00Not that bad, I think.
00:02Not sure.
00:04We'll kick off with Gael from Sky.
00:23There is a possibility with one of them to be available.
00:27He trained today and we'll see tomorrow.
00:31With Calafiore, how cautious are you having to be
00:35given he's not really been able to have a good run of games?
00:38We're just respecting the times that the medical department has set
00:43and then we just monitor his evolution every single day
00:46and we understand that he's not fully ready yet
00:49but he's getting very close now.
00:51And anyone else hold out for him?
00:53No.
00:54No, apart from the ones that they were already...
00:57Exactly.
01:27Does he deserve another crack tomorrow?
01:30Well, he certainly deserves to be in contention, to be selected
01:34because he performed and competed really well.
01:37As you mentioned, at his age you show that maturity on the pitch is strange
01:41and out in the field it's exactly the same.
01:44He's a person that continuously surprises all the staff
01:48with the kind of questions that he's capable of asking.
01:52That a lot of times tells you the intelligence of the person
01:56and Miles is a really bright boy.
01:58You always hoped it would go like that
02:01but how reassuring was it to see him flourish in that environment?
02:06Well, you always take a chance.
02:08Nobody can guarantee your performance.
02:10It doesn't matter the experience or the age
02:12but he was surrounded by very senior players, very experienced players
02:17and we believe that it was the right context,
02:19a context that he could succeed and help the team to perform, to win the game
02:23and he certainly did that.
02:26You talked a little bit over the last few weeks about creativity
02:29and finding that kind of little bit of sparkle, if you like.
02:33How pleased were you with your midfield trio on Wednesday?
02:38Odegaard, Mourinho and Rice.
02:40How much did you envisage that those two would actually be your midfield trio?
02:44I mean, it was the first time you got to use them all together.
02:47Did you like the balance? Did you like what you've seen?
02:49There have been recently a lot of new units.
02:52Certainly that was one.
02:53That's one that obviously we have planned and discussed
02:56and I think they can play so well together.
02:59And they did a really good job.
03:02They will play again together for sure in the near future
03:05and I think they complement each other really, really well.
03:08In terms of complementing each other, can you just explain a little bit more?
03:13We have three very intelligent football brains.
03:17Three players that they like to play for others, especially.
03:20And then you have a lot.
03:22You have players that can hold the ball in tight spaces,
03:24they can run with the ball, you have threat in the box,
03:26you have creativity in tight spaces.
03:29You have a lot of the things that you want.
03:32And the defensive part as well.
03:34They have two players that are more at home in midfield.
03:36There's Martin that is exceptional in his timings
03:39and aggression in the high press.
03:42So, very good.
03:44I want to ask you about the new rules now.
03:47The peace coach has got his own new rules.
03:49Yeah, I just heard. I didn't know that.
03:51So happy.
03:53He fully deserves it.
03:54The same as many other staff and coaches.
03:57So, it's great that the attention is not just on the players
04:01or sometimes the manager.
04:03That our supporters can think that way and someone can be so creative.
04:08It makes people value and be recognised,
04:11and I think it's something really good.
04:13Has he seen it yet? He obviously hasn't seen it.
04:15You showed him, yeah?
04:16Do you like it?
04:18He will say, well, he will love it.
04:20LAUGHTER
04:24Finally for me, it's going to be a little bit of a special game tomorrow
04:30where Arsenal and Everton, both in the future,
04:34and he meant a lot to a lot of people at both clubs.
04:38And I wonder how well you got to know him, or your thoughts,
04:43or whether that was just...
04:45Very little.
04:47You probably heard the stories and you understand how special he was to the people here.
04:53I do, and you can tell the way people talk,
04:56and the tone of the face that they put when they talk about him.
05:01And the club is on really well again to make that day feel very special
05:06for all the people that had the chance to get to know him
05:09and recognise who he was, especially as a person.
05:12So it will be a special day.
05:14Thanks. And we'll go to Nib from the Premier League.
05:16Hi, Miquel. Good afternoon.
05:18Since the beginning of last season, only Harry Kane, Vinny Junior and Antoine Griezmann
05:23have been involved in more Champions League goals than Bukayo Saka.
05:27We knew how great he is domestically,
05:30but you feel now Bukayo is getting more credit, more recognition across the continent.
05:34He's one of the best in Europe.
05:36Yeah, well, first of all, we have to win the competition.
05:38We certainly are now, and players, and everybody has to step up to that level.
05:43And, yeah, it's remarkable what he's doing consistently every three days
05:48in different competitions at this level.
05:51He's really good, and he will continue to do that, for sure.
05:55Fifty years ago, Everton was the club that gave you your first chance in English football.
05:59It's not the first time you've managed against them,
06:01but still, what's the biggest value you've learned from your time at Fulham Park?
06:06Well, the human quality and then how deep is the feeling towards the club.
06:11And as we all know, the club has been through very different stages through its history,
06:17and recently they have a really tough one.
06:20I love the way they get all together, they go through their storms.
06:25The way they face it is a great example, again,
06:28what Sean, the coach, and the players have done in recent years
06:31with all the instability around the club.
06:33So hopefully they can find a path now and a new stadium with new ownership as well
06:38and kick on and start more enjoyable times, hopefully.
06:43Because, obviously, the Merseyside RBA was postponed.
06:46They had significantly more time to recover, you played in the Champions League,
06:49you played in the league as well.
06:50Could that be a factor this weekend?
06:52Because we know in December the games are coming thick and fast.
06:56That's the context.
06:57We are so used to playing every three days.
06:59The boys trained today, really fired up, really looking forward to their game
07:03and understanding that it's always a really tough opponent
07:06and we're going to have to be really good to beat them.
07:10Hi, Mika, how are you?
07:12Hi, good.
07:13You don't look young, but would you say that right now
07:16Akai Osaka is world class?
07:18I don't know, I don't like putting labels to players.
07:25You know, he's exceptional.
07:27He's doing it very consistently.
07:31Now we need to go to the next stage and win things collectively as well,
07:35probably to get that label.
07:37And that's the end.
07:39Like Kevin Campbell, though, he's a product of Ireland.
07:43I guess tomorrow shows when Arsenal pay tribute to Kevin Campbell,
07:49but actually there is a much wider and much bigger thing outside of football.
07:55We all love football, but there are more important things in football.
07:58Yeah, for sure.
08:00The issue that we all have normally is that we don't recognise
08:03that it's something really, really impactful and difficult that happens in our lives.
08:08But, yeah, we are surrounded now, unfortunately, with a lot of issues.
08:11A lot of families, relatives, everybody is going through a lot of stuff
08:16that before it wasn't that common.
08:18So perspective is always good.
08:20How do you keep perspective?
08:22Because obviously last time, or one of the last times I was here,
08:25you were speaking about what the tragedy was happening in Valencia,
08:28in your homeland.
08:29There are tragedies many times that football remembers.
08:33How do you keep perspective as well as keeping your focus on being a football manager?
08:37First of all, understanding and being grateful of what we have daily,
08:42where we are.
08:43First of all, health is the most important thing.
08:46I have three kids, I have a wife, I have family,
08:48and the only thing that I ask and I just pray for is for everybody to be healthy.
08:53Without that, we have nothing else.
08:56And then again, what we are, what we are brought to this world to do,
09:00and make sure we enjoy it.
09:02Because there are going to be moments that, unfortunately,
09:04the world is going to crash and we're going to have to go through that.
09:07Finally, we've heard today about Everton's takeover.
09:10The club should be more stable and perhaps more like the club that you did play for
09:15many years ago, rather than the one that seems to have gone from one crisis to another,
09:21if crisis is indeed the right word.
09:23Yeah, but they haven't lost their roots.
09:25And as I said, that fighting spirit, that togetherness,
09:28that love for the club in regards.
09:32Whatever happens, they are there.
09:34And that's not easy.
09:35And that makes them really, really special.
09:37Hopefully that will help them, give them stability.
09:39The project with the new stadium, it's unbelievable as well.
09:42So, a lot to be excited about.
09:45Simon, Evening Standard.
09:46Mikel, we asked you a lot about the Caio and that right side.
09:50How important is it for you that you have that balance in the team
09:53and that we're sat here asking you about Martinelli and Trotter,
09:56that you have that threat from both sides?
09:59Well, we certainly have that.
10:00But, obviously, it's never going to be the same because they have different qualities.
10:04And we need to understand that we have many other threats in our left side
10:08and over the years we've done it.
10:10And, you know, we wouldn't be scoring the amount of goals
10:13that we have scored in the last two seasons.
10:15So, I'm really pleased with that.
10:17Different, different is good.
10:19It doesn't have to be symmetric.
10:20Asymmetries in football are great and very difficult to combat.
10:25And we continue to go, trying to improve.
10:28Has it been a bit difficult there, obviously,
10:29because injuries at left-back?
10:31James, who's played the left number eight.
10:33How important do you think Mikel Moreno could be
10:35in terms of unlocking that left side when he's fully fit?
10:38Yeah, that's something, obviously,
10:39that we have a lot of instability in recent years.
10:42So, finding that stability, those relationships, that time together,
10:46putting players that they can connect with each other
10:49and find those chemistries is very important.
10:52And it's true that we have never had the consistency,
10:55especially because of availability in the left and in the right.
10:59Alex, BBC.
11:00Hi, Miguel.
11:01We heard that Kaio Saka's outfit is up there
11:04with some of the best forwards in Europe.
11:06So, how do you keep challenging him or how do you keep him motivated?
11:10Oh, because there's still so much to do.
11:12There's everything to win, you know, still.
11:15So, that's the motivation,
11:17the fact that he wants to be better every single day,
11:20that he wants to keep pushing this football club, this team,
11:23to a higher level.
11:25And that's it.
11:27If I have to motivate him, that's a problem.
11:30That's within him.
11:31Do you ever show him a forward's outfit and say,
11:34this is what you can get to?
11:36Yeah, we always set targets.
11:38But understanding how we're going to have to reach those targets.
11:43An idea to score 30 goals or 40 is fine,
11:45it's how we're going to do it,
11:47and then how we're going to create a plan to try to develop the player,
11:51to give him the best possible chance to make sure that he's able to do that.
11:55Kaio, Football London.
11:57This fixture last season was obviously the final game of the season.
12:00You said in the past that your team went for a dinner that night,
12:04and I think the players came over to you and said,
12:06we want to go again straight away,
12:08we want to win the league that season straight away.
12:10Can you tell us a bit more about that night,
12:12the emotions around the team and how everyone was feeling?
12:15Well, it was obviously mixed emotions.
12:19Very sad because we had the hope that we could do it the last day of the season.
12:23It has happened many times in this league.
12:25We weren't able to do it, and at the same time,
12:27pride and fire in the belly and motivation to understand that we are there,
12:32that we are good enough to do it,
12:34and that we have to push it again because we really want it.
12:37Did that come from the players?
12:39Yeah.
12:40Which players specifically would come over to you?
12:42I don't like to explain that,
12:44but a few players came straight away with that kind of talk.
12:48Jordan Athletic.
12:50When we sit here and ask about Kaio reaching Bernalco and Messi numbers,
12:54you say you've got a plan and you sit and think about how that will evolve
12:58over the next few years.
13:00When you look at those two players,
13:02they hit those numbers once they moved inside the pitch.
13:05Sometimes Kaio, sometimes it's Shoudi now,
13:08and the team's two or three players around him.
13:10Do you envisage over the next few years that he will move like Messi
13:13or Bernalco in a central position?
13:15Yeah, I think that will depend a lot on the qualities and the players around him.
13:20For somebody to be inside instead of outside,
13:23somebody has to be outside.
13:25And that player and that full-back and that attacking midfielder,
13:28that nine, has to allow the space to do that.
13:31But I'm certainly very open to keep evolving players.
13:35Sometimes it's the role, sometimes it's the position on the pitch.
13:38Sometimes there are other things that we can do
13:41so he can spend more time in this position
13:43because when the ball is fired on the opposite side,
13:45it's our choice what we want.
13:47But we're certainly thinking about these kinds of things.
13:50It's interesting, Jorginho said the other day in an interview
13:53that you don't specifically tell Martinelli and Saka to stay out wide.
13:57They sort of just do it naturally.
13:59As they're getting older, are you leading it up to Martinelli
14:02to figure the game out for himself and to go,
14:04well, he thinks he can affect it?
14:06When the understanding of the game and the spaces and the timing
14:09that they move in relation to each other is strong,
14:11I think the freedom has to increase.
14:13Because the decision-making is going to improve
14:16because they understand it better.
14:18So that will create uncertainty to the opposition.
14:21And at the moment, that states that they have much more freedom than in the past.
14:25Just a similar question on Gabriel.
14:27Simon was talking about the balance of the team.
14:30Maybe the last couple of years he's not quite ticked on as people would expect
14:33in terms of his numbers.
14:35Do you see him potentially becoming a number nine in the long term?
14:39Are we wrong just now?
14:41Do you see him potentially moving?
14:43Who, you say, Gabriel?
14:45Well, he's played a few times.
14:48I think Gab is so good when he's got the line on his back
14:52and he's facing forward and he's got the ball in the diagonal
14:55that I haven't thought too much about that.
14:58And he's so comfortable playing that, especially on the left side.
15:01So I think I see other evolutions more than this one.
15:04Okay, last couple in the live section.
15:06We'll go to James from ESPN.
15:07Hi, Mikel.
15:08I know you've got a lot of games before January.
15:10There's only a couple of weeks until the window opens
15:12and you don't have a sporting director.
15:14Are you confident that won't be a problem
15:17for whatever business you want to do in January?
15:19Yeah.
15:20Well, we have one.
15:21Jason Ato is our sporting director,
15:23interim sporting director,
15:24and he's got the full capacity right now,
15:27full support, the support of the football club.
15:29And he's doing really well with his team.
15:31And then the process is open, obviously, as you know.
15:34And the club, with the support of all of us
15:37and intervention of all of us,
15:39will decide who they think is the best person to move us forward.
15:43Is there any progress in that?
15:45Yeah, I'm sure there is progress, yeah.
15:47Do you think in general January will be a busy window?
15:53I don't expect, never expect January to be super busy.
15:57But we have to wait and see where we are.
16:00Some surprises can come, we are prepared for that.
16:03Some opportunities as well.
16:05And we'll have to see.
16:06Hopefully the squad and the availability of the squad
16:09is going to be better in a few weeks.
16:11We'll have to wait and see.
16:13Just finally for me,
16:14Martyn Lewis-Skelly obviously impressed in midweek.
16:17I know as a club you're keen to promote the academy.
16:20Do you feel with him and with Ethan playing more minutes now
16:23that that pathway is a bit clearer now for those youth teams
16:27and age groups to be able to get into the academy?
16:29Yeah, well, I mean, in terms of the intention
16:32and what we want is clear.
16:34First of all, we want to look in the academy.
16:36And then we have to understand if what we need
16:39is actually there in that moment.
16:41Because sometimes the age groups and what happens,
16:44the timing doesn't always work.
16:46But we are extremely happy with the way the academy is working
16:49and to see that talent raising.
16:51And now we have to create a space as well ourselves in the squad
16:54for those kids to have the right amount of time
16:57and the role that they deserve in the squad.
16:59OK, Phil from PA at the back.
17:01Hi, I wanted to ask about the sporting director too.
17:03Did you envisage that it would be resolved before the summer
17:06or do you think it will be sort of in the season?
17:10Timing-wise it's difficult to understand
17:12and I'm not running that process
17:14so it's more a question for the club to respond.
17:17Is it something you'd like to see settled soon?
17:21Yeah, but we are convinced that we have the right person
17:24with the right team that can work with a lot of people
17:27that are doing extremely great work at the moment
17:30and that someone is going to help us to go to the next level
17:33and we might have it internally.
17:35OK.