\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on how much he had to pick up the players after defeats to Man City and Southampton:<\/strong> on how big the opportunity is to go 12 points clear:<\/strong> on if our pride is tested or reinforced in difficult moments:<\/strong> on if there\u2019s anything to say regarding his contract:<\/strong> on how much belief he has that our players can win the league and the Champions League:<\/strong> on managing the DNA of the club with young players coming through at the same time as the ambitions of trophies:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on if the period of time to prove that younger players can become a part of our team is becoming shorter:<\/strong> on the pride of coming up against Andoni Iraola, who is from a similar part of Spain:<\/strong> on what\u2019s challenging about a 12.30pm kick-off:<\/strong> on the benefit of most of our remaining games being in London:<\/strong> on what he\u2019s grown to understand more about Eze lately:<\/strong> on the spaces he was in when he was in form before he got injured:<\/strong> on if he sometimes decides first who can come off the bench to impact the team:<\/strong> on what makes Martinelli so effective in the role of a finisher:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on if Arteta sees his long-term future here:<\/strong> on if he could be in the job for as long as Arsene Wenger:<\/strong> on how Merino\u2019s recovery is going:<\/strong> on Aaron Ramsey announcing his retirement:<\/strong> on trying not to concede set-piece goals to Bournemouth like we did last season:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ahead of the return of the Premier League, Mikel Arteta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialsport.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Arteta gives injury update on Saka, Eze and Timber <\/span>
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I think it’s a balance, as I said the other day, it’s better to observe first, you know, to see the natural reaction, to see what we are made of, to see what’s the first instinct, collective and individually from the players, and then you can intervene based on that. But to be fair, they didn’t need much because their reaction was top, as I said before. The understanding of why we lost those matches, and how we are going to pull it right, and I think it was a really good reaction against Sporting.<\/p>\n
The closer we get, the relevance and importance of the match increases obviously, and tomorrow is a big day for us. The players know it, our supporters know it, it’s an early kick-off, so get up early, have an early breakfast, bring your lunch, bring your dinner, and let’s go all together for it because it has to be a big day.<\/p>\n
I think reinforced because that talks about your culture and the identity of this club and the team, and to define that, you have to go through different scenarios, different moments, individually and collectively. I always said that that’s one of the proudest things that I have, not only with the people but our supporters as well, they’ve always been with the team regardless of the situation and that’s great to see in football. I think that attitude and that behaviour and that unity gives you more will to win for them. That possibility, the opportunity to make so many people proud and happy, increases and that’s what has driven everybody, me first of all, and then all the players and the people in the organisation.<\/p>\n
No, there’s no news on that. I think we’ll have time to discuss that now. The full focus is on what we have to do from here until the end of the season.<\/p>\n
A lot, because I see them every single day and first of all, the capacity that we have as a club and as a team, the will to win, and we recognise the opportunity ahead. We\u2019re going to do our best to try and achieve it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of us, and I think at the end what has to define this football club is to seek for excellence, seek for the best, regardless if you\u2019re coming from abroad. If we can have players from Hale End it\u2019s obviously much better because the identity is there, we grow with them and we know exactly what they\u2019re looking for. But at the end, they have to earn it and not just for a week or a month, for years like anybody else. It doesn\u2019t matter what department or what you have in the club, you have to sustain performance and that has to be at the very highest level if we want to win and sustainably be where we want to be.<\/p>\n Get ready for PL run-in with this special video <\/span>
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The margins are shorter because we\u2019re doing something that is unprecedented. We have players that play in competitions nobody else has done at that age, so I think the balance is there. We are doing everything we can to accommodate that, especially because they deserve the opportunity as it\u2019s the best thing. Nobody\u2019s here to give a gift, an opportunity, to someone that doesn\u2019t deserve it. Everybody that has been in and around the first team is because they deserve to be there.<\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s amazing what he has done together with the club. The consistency that they\u2019ve shown, the manner that they\u2019ve done it and the amount of players they\u2019ve sold – how they\u2019ve then reinvented themselves. And the run that they are on is incredible because we know out of the Premier League, when it comes to pride, it\u2019s huge. When it comes to rivalry on matchday, it\u2019s even bigger – it goes out the window.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know, but I think for every game we have to be there. We know the meaning of every match here and the opportunity that we have, especially when we play at home. We need to maximise every result. It\u2019s about each individual and how we turn up there. It\u2019s actually impacting the game, the atmosphere and energy in the stadium. Whoever comes tomorrow, I ask them to be with that mindset, energy and commitment, because the team is going to respond beautifully to that.<\/p>\n
We need to exploit that and use that advantage. We\u2019ve travelled so much during the last nine months and now it\u2019s not going to be that much. We\u2019ll have two clean weeks in between now and the final game of the season, so that\u2019s something very positive – let\u2019s use it.<\/p>\n
Great question. So one of them, I didn’t know that he was so determined, so obsessed and so willing to push his body. I didn’t know that part of him and it really surprised me in a really powerful way, how much he loves the game. When you take somebody’s opportunity to play, you really see their reaction. His was, wow, how involved he was in and around the team, the energy that he brings every day in the building, and then we use that time as well, obviously, to identify areas where he can impact the game, get his opinion wide and open about where he sees himself, where he’s more comfortable, what he sees about the team. And I think we use that time in a really good way.<\/p>\n
That’s on the attacking side, but there are other areas as well, that obviously he didn’t feel they were that important or things that we discussed that probably in other teams he hasn’t discussed as that vital and important to change games or to win football matches that he recognises now, he’s such an intelligent person and it\u2019s so easy to talk to him.<\/p>\n
There are games that is yes, not only for the impact as well, as well for some physical restrictions that we can have or to find some freshness or the type the opposition plays as well and how we can adapt to what they do or we can hurt them, and that’s a big part when we have the players that we have, when we have players available obviously to do that. It’s a big advantage.<\/p>\n
Well, first of all, his mentality and Gabi is a winner. Gabi is someone that it doesn’t matter what you’re doing out there, he wants to be the best, and when he starts, great. When he doesn’t, he’s still the same specimen and wants to win and he will do anything to win. That’s what I love about him.<\/p>\n Super subs: Our “finishers” setting new benchmarks <\/span>
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I’m fully committed here. I’m really happy and I feel good. My family is good. I still have so much ambition and things to do in this football club. And for now, we are in a good place.<\/p>\n
I’m going to take what I said to the fans, bring your lunch, bring your dinner. It’s about tomorrow, and so for me, this is this job. It’s about the presence, what you do on the day. Give your very best and feel that you are the person as well who can lead and inspire the group to achieve great things for the club. And at the moment, I feel that way, and hopefully, we’re going to feel that way for the rest of the week with a great outcome at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
H<\/strong>e’s another one that is going to push every boundary. He’s out of his boot now. He’s doing quite a lot of exercises already. He’s reacted really well to the surgery. He’s got no pain. It’s more for the medical staff to go a bit further on that. But I’m sure there is a chance to make that period shorter. If there is a person who can do it, I’m sure that’s going to be Mikel again.<\/p>\n
A long career, a career full of great moments, full of challenges, and again, that’s another one when you see those difficult moments, how he reacted to them, how he overcomes certain situations that look very, very difficult. Top character, top guy, a very good team-mate of mine. What a career he’s had with different clubs, with his country as well. A different life starts and I wish him all the best.<\/p>\n
We need to learn that lesson, certainly, and away from home as well, we conceded a set-piece goal the year before as well. So it’s an area where they are really strong, and we certainly have to improve to create the margin and the game context that we want. So we’re going to have to be really good at that.<\/p>\n A look back at classic wins against Bournemouth <\/span>
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