Mikel Arteta is full of excitement for tomorrow’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg at home to Real Madrid.
Our manager sat down in front of members of the media at Sobha Realty Training Centre to look ahead to the huge match.
Here’s everything he had to say on the following subjects.
on if everyone is available following the weekend:
Yeah, looks like it. We have another training session this afternoon, but Ben finished the game. We had to stop him over time because he hasn’t played much football, but he was fine after the game. And with the rest, they went through the game and they were able to do some bits yesterday and ready to train today.
on if he’s decided how to replace Gabriel:
Yes, decided.
on if we need a special effort to get the result:
Be super convinced. 8pm tomorrow night, 11 players, 60,000 people. Really super convinced that we are ready to win and to beat them. That’s the mindset that I want. The rest, be the team that we’ve been over the last quarter of the season. With all the ups and downs and things that we have to deal with, continue to do that because that’s our super strength.
on if Saka is fit enough to start:
He’s in a much better place. Gradually, we have built his minutes in the last six or seven days. He scored with that really well and he’s in a good place to be able to be used.
on if this kind of game is why he came into football:
That’s why I came into football. That’s why I came into management and especially to this football club. It’s been 20 years since we had this type of game and for us it’s a great opportunity to build our own story and this is what we’re here for.
on if it’s his biggest night in management:
100%. It’s a joy to prepare the game, to look at them, just to look at the reaction of people and how we feel about ourselves coming into a game of that magnitude. The excitement around the club, the people, this is the stage that we want to be and where Arsenal has to be consistently. We are very proud to be there and now we’re very ready tomorrow to deliver. This is proper now, the last stage of the proper team in the competition.
on if we’re due a bit of luck:
I think we deserve it but we have to earn it and we have to earn it again tomorrow evening. We’re going to put all the ingredients, everything that is in our hands to play the game that we want and to take the game in the direction that we want. In order to achieve that, we’re going to need our people playing every single ball with us and that’s going to make a huge difference because that’s something that is really needed. At these stages, you need your home stadium to create a very, very special atmosphere to generate momentum. So, let’s go. I encourage everybody to go there tomorrow to play the game with us. Not to be there watching it but to play the game with us.
on how to play the game and not the occasion:
I think they are convinced. If I have to convince them, I think we have a problem. It’s the level of conviction regardless of what happens and any context that we have to play throughout this time. But they know exactly what they have to do.
on how not to worry about the opposition:
There are things that we cannot control which is what they are going to prepare and what they can do. We have to focus and our energy has to be on that. Understanding what pushes in our strengths and what pushes in our weaknesses and the direction that we want to play in the game.
on the importance of going to Madrid with a lead on aggregate:
Very important but it will be just the first leg as you mentioned. The intention of the team is very clear. We want to achieve tomorrow and we’re going to go for it.
on how important Odegaard has been since joining from Madrid:
I think it’s very important for the football club because we recruited a player that fits every quality to deliver performances, the demands that we want and then the person that is an exceptional representative of the values of this football club. Our history and obviously people from where we were to where we are, the role that he’s played and how much he has contributed to be playing where we are at the moment.
on if this is one of the biggest matches of his coaching career:
It is one of the most special things. It’s a competition that we’ve been waiting for for many, many years. The fact that we’ve only been twice at this stage in 15 years with the size of Arsenal and the difficulty of that. We’re going to create our own story and go even further. Tomorrow is a beautiful opportunity for all of us.
on Jurrien Timber’s versatility:
Incredible. Nobody probably realised the player that we signed until he stepped through that door and started to show every quality that he has on the human side because he’s a leader. He had a really tough start, having a really difficult injury almost a year out, and then the way he’s been going this season, it’s just remarkable. He’s in a different position with different demands but is always so consistent. Hopefully tomorrow he will be in the best condition to play the game.
on having a special plan to deal with Real’s attack:
With the individual qualities that they have, especially when you put them in certain situations, you know the danger that you are facing. But that’s the stage, it doesn’t get much bigger than that. What they’ve been doing in this competition is they can create those moments, and when it comes to the biggest stage, individual performance of players can decide a game and are critical for your success and that’s something that we have to prevent.
on the 2006 games:
That’s an inspiration for sure because that generation and what they achieved is what we want to achieve certainly. It’s very different, 20 years is a long time in football and it was a very different context, but the history is there. Unfortunately it’s too far to be very relevant to the situation that we are in, but there are things to take from there and be inspired for sure.
on whether this fixture holds special significance for him as a Spaniard:
It does mean a lot. It’s a club that has set new standards in world football, that’s why they’ve done it more than anybody else. So that’s an inspiration for any manager, any club. This is where we want to be, this is where we want to belong, and these opportunities have to be taken in order to go in that direction.
on if we’re in a better place since last season’s quarter-final:
I think we are. Building those experiences is something necessary, that’s why I said that we have to build our own story. There’s a massive gap there of so many years when nothing has happened in this football club in relation to European competitions. We need to change that and we need to change that quickly.
on if we didn’t express ourselves properly in that game against Bayern:
Especially moments in the second leg because there were moments in the first leg, especially in the first half where we absolutely had them, and we have to utilise those moments and be ruthless. You have to put the game to bed and we didn’t, and on top of that we gave them two goals and made life much more difficult for us on the return leg in Munich.
on Real Madrid’s aura:
That’s the history and they have earned that because of the mindset that they have. So you can’t ignore that, that’s a fact. I don’t want to talk about it because we all know about it, so let’s talk about what we have to build and what we have to do, and how we can feel inspired by these occasions and look at what we do. And the fact that they haven’t been successful all the time, because it’s impossible – so from 20 times, maybe you win five, that means that you haven’t won the rest of the 15, so it’s very difficult to do it. We’re in a position that we have competed against any team in the last two years that we have faced, so we can do it again.
on the supporters making an impact right throughout the night:
I hope. I encourage them to come very early to the warm-up, and create those nights that we haven’t lived many of at Emirates Stadium, so that’s an opportunity again. When we have built history, we have to build moments, and a moment is being built with our people. We have to create that energy, that belief, that enthusiasm to play every single action there. Because the bonus, the confidence that that gives you, there is nothing else that we can replicate that I can tell the players constantly to maintain that throughout the 95 minutes that the game is going to be played.
