Ahead of the high-stakes Premier League clash between Arsenal and Liverpool in this round, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attended the pre-match press conference.
Q: You talked about the role the fans will play tomorrow. What does it actually feel like to have such a huge support base behind you?A: It’s incomparable. I mean, you become a different player—your emotional state is better, your energy levels are higher, and your confidence is boosted. They drive you to act with aggression and determination in every move, which in turn lifts the entire team. That’s what we have to deliver tomorrow.
Q: Given Liverpool’s excellent performance last season and their summer reinforcements, did you expect them to be your main title rivals?A: Well, yes, but that’s obviously on paper. I still think they are a super team, and what they have done is equally impressive. You have to understand their confidence amid certain injury issues, and the difficulty of the league for all of us. But my opinion of them hasn’t changed.
Q: After that game at Anfield, there was a lot of talk about whether the team was too cautious to compete with Liverpool. Are you convinced that as the season progresses, you will always prove those opinions wrong?A: I don’t know. We always prepare for the game in the best possible way to beat them—that is, to fight for victory in the best way the league allows us.
Q: At the start of this press conference, you said you felt there was something to prove, so I’m curious what that “something” is in your mind?A: To prove that we can keep improving consistently. We have something to prove every week, just like we did a few days ago when we faced Bournemouth after beating Villa, and it will keep going. We know that because once we are in our current position, we want to maintain and extend our lead. To do that, our determination and desire must match our mindset.
Q: Regarding maintaining this mindset amid the intense fixture schedule of a game every three days, how do you keep everyone—not just the players, but also the staff—focused?A: We are extremely hungry for success, and that’s what drives everyone. It’s also an excellent quality we have within the club, especially among the staff and players, because we know what it takes to achieve our goals.
Q: Both Ruben Amorim and Enzo Maresca left their posts after expressing frustration with the “head coach” model. You were initially hired as a “head coach” and later became a “manager”. I know every club is different, but what difference did the transition from head coach to manager make for you?A: At that time, they proposed changing my role and put forward their views on where they thought I could help more than they initially expected—that’s the difference. But ultimately, it’s about relationships and people. We work with a great team of people with different strengths; some are better at certain things than others. When someone is much better at something than me, I let them take charge. So for me, the title doesn’t really reflect how we operate on a daily basis.
I think what’s more important is the people and their morale—truly understanding that we should each play to our strengths, which will make us stronger. For the rest, we just need to support this philosophy.
Q: Being given extra responsibilities in your first role as a manager must have boosted your confidence.A: Yes, because I didn’t ask for it or demand it, but they believed it was the right thing to do. But equally, since then, due to personnel changes in recent years, we have had to work with different people. When you have a leader—here it’s the owners Stan and Josh, especially Josh who is very close to the day-to-day operations—who has a clear vision, is aligned with all of us, knows what he wants to do and how to achieve it, and creates space for everyone, I think it’s very easy to work in such an environment.
Q: I know it’s been mentioned before, but going back to that game at Anfield, the reaction to your coaching style was very quick and direct. Have you looked back on that game? What did you learn from it? What do you think the broader discussion might have misunderstood?A: No, I mean, people have the right to their opinions, and mine is different—but that’s the beauty of football.
Q: What is your opinion then?A: Very different.
Q: We saw Gabriel score another brilliant goal against Bournemouth; he is now just two goals away from the Arsenal defender Premier League scoring record held by your former teammate Laurent Koscielny. I’m sure you expect him to break that record soon, given his goalscoring rate. What makes him so outstanding in the art of scoring goals in the opposition’s penalty area among all current defenders?A: The desire to score goals, coupled with the effort he puts in, the attention to detail, putting himself in the best positions to finish, and executing the specific set-piece routines and movements that require his involvement.
Q: This team has more points and more goals after 20 games than the “Invincibles” era. Obviously, you have been here for a long time both as a player and a coach. Do you think the team you have now is as good as, or even better than, the “Invincibles”?A: No, because the “Invincibles” won a lot of trophies, they kept winning, made history and became legends—and we have to do that.
Obviously, we have produced a lot of good statistics, but we have also had good statistics, more points, more goals and made history in the past two or three years. Ultimately, we have to translate these into important trophies and what we want to achieve. Maybe our current performance would have been enough in the past, but it’s not enough now—we have to pull ahead by a bigger margin. That’s what we have to do.
