Not long after landing in the Czech Republic ahead of our Champions League league-phase clash against Slavia Prague, Mikel Arteta was whisked to the Fortuna Arena for media duties.
In his pre-match press conference, he discussed William Saliba’s return, selection options, the danger our opponents pose, and more.
Here is everything he had to say:
on the tragic passing of Jesús de Miguel:
Absolutely heartbreaking. Watching back the action, the incident, what happened. To see a colleague lose his life in such a manner, It’s beyond any words that I can put today. So, on behalf of everybody at the club, we want to send our condolences to the family of Jesus de Miguel, all his loved ones, and to Tenerife as well because it’s been a really difficult day.
on William Saliba being back with the group:
He’s in a really good place. I think the process and the timings and in the manner the injury has been dealt with, and especially the feelings that Willy has been having along the way, they’ve been very, very positive. So, his evolution has been as expected, which is not always the case. He feels very comfortable. He played 45 minutes [behind] closed doors last week and he feels ready to go. So whether we use him or not now is a matter of what the team needs.
on Martin Zubimendi’s role moving forward:
He’s a very important player for us. He’s been a bit unlucky with what happened with the ankle, with the nose afterwards. He had some minutes as well and we have options in midfield. Like anybody else, everybody has to be ready. Everybody is going to have the chances to play. Then it’s about performing and helping the team to win football matches. But his energy, his application and his will to help are unquestionable, and he’s an unbelievable player for us.
on how Wilo is feeling:
I think he feels very desperate and very loved because Willy is somebody that is admired and very liked around the team. Every time he’s around he creates something special. That’s Willy, that’s his nature. He’s around the team now and now we need to give him the right moment, the right amount of minutes and hopefully that’s going to be very soon.
on being cautious ahead of a serious injury:
Yes, but now you are in or not. Now he’s in and he’s in like anybody else. So all the preparation has been done to measure all the loads and all the steps that he had to do to minimise that risk. Now he’s in a really good place. He’s built the capacity that we needed and now it’s about giving him minutes. He’s a centre-back, and when that’s the case, it’s not like an attacking midfielder or a nine that you can change. A centre-back normally has to be able to play 90 minutes and that’s why all the preparation that we’ve done to build him.
on whether Dowman can start Champions League matches:
It’s another year in his career and he’s shown that every time he’s played with us, he has a lot to offer. So that would be now a matter of a choice from my side to pick him.
on Max’s response since Fleetwood:
That’s a chapter that is gone. It’s a moment of learning from all of us and we move on. You learn from the not-so-good ones; you make sure that you learn from the great ones as well. He’s been in great spirit. When you see the kid and today we spent some time together as well talking about things in training, it’s always super positive. When you’re 16 you have a different way of looking at things and treating things and that’s what he brings to the team as well.
on having two Spanish World Cup winners in the squad who have not been starting games this season:
They are playing a pivotal role. If we focus on the players that are starting, obviously that’s something else. Mikel has started some games already, some important games and he’s coming from a World Cup, a very successful World Cup. We know the value of the players that we have in the squad. They need to feel important. I do think that they feel very important and we have to make sure that they continue like that because if they have that spirit and that belief within themselves every time they play, they will make things happen for the team to win the game.
on how much of a benefit it is to have winners with experience in the squad:
Yes and accepting the role on the day and everybody wants to start games but I think this season and last season we have experienced some incredible moments by the players that have come in and that’s going to be equally important, especially when you play every 72 hours.
on the process around Wilo’s recovery and how he’s been able to avoid surgery:
That’s more for a specialist than to me but they looked at every option. They got some of the best leading people in the world with the injury that he had and at the end they decided that the conservative way was the best route for him, especially with the history that Willy had. Everything has been assessed every week, every month with all of them and the progress has been so good to get to the point where he’s now fit and available to play.
on his relationship with Saliba:
I think we always had a really honest relationship. It’s probably better now because he’s played a lot and we’ve been together, and have success together, and obviously that creates a bond between two people. While he’s been away, I think we made sure that he had some time off because it’s been an extremely demanding schedule for him in the last few years, and then he put in an incredible effort and amount of hours to get back. That’s how William is – he does it in silence, he does his own thing. Every time he’s around the team, he helps to maintain and improve the energy of the team.
on how he fits Saliba, Konsa and Gabriel in the same team:
So far we haven’t had that luxury, I wouldn’t call it a problem! We can talk about problems that are very different to that one. The moment that they are fit and available, we’re going to have the opportunity to give players [rest] or to load the players and to manage the congestion of the players in a much better way than we’ve actually done. And Esri, he can play as a full-back but I think his main position is as a centre-back. He can play right or left, and William is on the same with the national team or here at Arsenal, and that’s going to be something really positive.
on if our players have taken Max under their wing this week:
Yes, but I think we’ve all done that because that’s the way you feel about somebody, not because he had any guilt or anything. It’s because it’s something human. When somebody is sad or feels vulnerable in a moment, what you do is you’re there to help him, and all the players are extremely conscious of that, and not only for his age. It’s for the way Max is and the way he treats people. You just want to look after that kind of people and the team has been very close to him.
on his private conversations with Max:
I sat down with him and said: “did you see my press conference, what do you think?” Just honestly, because it’s public. We just have this kind of relationship, and I think it’s the way it should be, and it’s something different, he needs to tell me. That’s the relationship we try to build with our players. He’s in a good place, and in the end, he is going to come out as a critical point in his career where he needs to learn about something that is going to be happening a few times every game for him. It’s not only going to happen maybe once or twice a season, but three or four times per game probably he’s going to have to go through these kind of moments. He needs to master that because it’s part of the game.
on shirt pulling:
I have a lot of clips about shirt pulls, grabs, so I have a massive library that we can talk about. We’ve been talking about one in particular, but I have a massive library that we can throw there to remind everybody what every team is going through.
on last season’s game:
I watched it back twice – it was tough because it’s a really good team that are extremely well coached. Obviously they’ve been almost 10 years together now, andn are a really, really competitive team, wth a great mindset, some clear principles and concepts that they want to apply and the way they navigate you through the game. So, we know it’s going to be a really difficult game.
on whether Declan Rice is one of the best midfielders in England:
It’s not for me to get into that debate. I love our players and Declan is one of them, a super important player. He’s had an immense impact on the team and he needs to continue to do that. We are in October and there is obviously much more to do.
on Jindrich Trpisovsky‘s work at Slavia:
He’s ahead of me because he’s been here 10 years now, no? It’s a long time. That tells you the quality of, first, the person because to stay for 10 years somewhere, I think you need to do a lot of things right and they are not regarding tactics. It’s about how you treat people, the culture you set up at the club, the way you present yourself, the way you treat external people, a lot of things. I think what he’s done is remarkable, so congratulations to him. Tomorrow we will face each other and it is going to be a difficult one.