Arteta is excited and proud of Arsenal for making it to Champions League this season and is taking it one game at a time with the team. Arteta has passed on his experience to the squad and looks forward to tomorrows game and hopes for an incredible fan atmosphere tomorrow against PSV
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00:00 How do you sum up your debut as a Champions League manager?
00:15 Proud and excited. It's been a long time for the club since we haven't been in the competition
00:19 and obviously it's the first time for me as a manager as well so really looking forward
00:23 to it.
00:24 Do you sense that's the case all around this training ground?
00:32 Yes and we've been chasing it and fighting for it and now we've got it. Now we have to
00:36 make the most out of it. It starts at home and I'm sure our supporters are going to be
00:41 really excited about it and we need to manage that and enjoy the challenge.
00:45 How is Gabriel Martinelli at training?
00:51 He felt something in his hamstring and we need to do some further tests to assess if
00:56 there is any big damage or not. But he will be out for tomorrow's game, that's for sure.
01:01 With the North London derby coming up fast, is he likely to be available for that?
01:06 It's a possibility, we don't know yet. As I said, we need some more tests and then see
01:12 what happens.
01:13 Can you tell us who is going to start up front, in midfield or in defence? You wouldn't tell me. I'd ask you if you could start in goal. Will you tell me?
01:22 Same answer.
01:23 Hi Mikel, hope you are well. When you see the other groups that some of the other English sides face, maybe Newcastle, are you confident that you can progress from this group?
01:39 That's what we want to do but this is football. Tomorrow we are going to play against a really
01:43 good team. They haven't lost a game and they have won the majority of the game. They are
01:49 used to winning like every other team that is in the Champions League. It will be a really
01:54 tough test I'm sure.
01:55 This is quite a relatively young Arsenal squad and for most of them it will be their first
01:56 experience of playing in the Champions League. But it's had people like Jorginho and Kavacs
01:57 have won it before in the likes of Partey, Nisenchenko and Jesus. How important is their
01:58 experience of playing in the Champions League to them?
01:59 It's great to have that mixture and the excitement that creates to play for the first time. I
02:17 sense it. They are players that have played for many years. Some of them have won it as
02:21 you said. It's just mixing that experience and as well deciding to make your debut in
02:27 the right way to perform at the highest level.
02:29 Were you surprised by the reaction and split opinion that the comments have received when
02:36 Roberto Deserbi has been doing the same thing at Brighton this season?
02:40 No because I respect opinions as well and I understand the questions and I understand
02:44 historically what happened. For me there is nothing different. We have been doing it for
02:50 many years. When Ben was here we brought Aaron and I don't see any differences. It's my job.
02:57 I have to answer the questions in the best possible way, in the most honest way. As a
03:02 manager my job is to do what I feel. What I feel is always the best for the team and
03:08 for the club, not for Mikel that's for sure.
03:10 The atmosphere at the end of this season has surely got to be the best in the Premier League.
03:15 How important are the fans going to be and what sort of role are they going to have to
03:19 play in these group games?
03:20 We will see tomorrow night but I'm sure it will be an incredible atmosphere. It will
03:25 create a special night. I played a few of them with the club and I have beautiful memories
03:31 about them so I'm waiting for it.
03:33 Can you describe the role that N'Golo has had in the rebuilding process of the club?
03:45 He's our captain, a really important player for us and a player that has developed, evolved
03:51 and been in this journey with us together for a few years. He's been instrumental in
03:57 everything that we've done, starting with building the culture that we wanted, recruiting
04:01 the profile and the players with the right specificity to play the way we want to play
04:06 and obviously the level that he has performed in a really consistent way I think.
04:11 Mohamed El Nenny is the only player left in the last Champions League campaign. Is he
04:21 back to the training today?
04:23 He's still young though. He's in a good place. Obviously he's been a while and he's
04:30 been a very significant injury but I think he's in the last stages of that rehab process.
04:35 He's been training now for almost two weeks with the team and he's in a good place and
04:40 it's always great to have him around.
04:42 Do you think the experience of the players will be improved for the first time?
05:00 I hope not. We have to treat it like any other game. We are used to playing top opposition
05:05 every week in the Premier League and tomorrow again we're going to have a top side fighting
05:10 against us and the good thing is that we experience that every three or four days in the Premier
05:15 League so it couldn't be any different tomorrow.
05:18 What kind of response have you seen from the goalkeepers since you've dropped your name?
05:27 Honestly I don't want to talk about the response of every single player in the squad, whether
05:31 they play or not. Sorry. Thank you.
05:34 Fabio has been in midfield for a good weekend after some strong substitute appearances.
05:41 He looks like a much more confident player the last few weeks. Can you talk about why
05:46 you haven't seen that?
05:48 That was my fault. I said many times that I haven't played him enough and he hasn't
05:52 had enough room in the team maybe with the competition that we play to participate more.
05:57 We see every day the talent that he's got and what he can bring to the team and I was
06:02 really happy with the performance on the weekend.
06:04 Is that something you need to juggle with the Premier League and Champions League? You
06:08 spoke about trying to tackle the competition but how do you keep players happy and also
06:12 get them consistent?
06:15 To be happy they have to play and they have to feel important, they have to feel valued
06:19 and they have to feel that we trust them. It's the only way to do it and I will try
06:25 to do that in the best possible way, maximising them to get the best possible performance.
06:31 That's it.
06:32 You've talked before about the frustration you felt not being able to watch this competition
06:38 on the team, from the sidelines. Can you tell us about any particular moments from last
06:43 season or the year before when you watched it and thought nobody was going to come?
06:48 Every time that I watched it and we weren't there I felt it. I think you put pressure
06:53 on yourself. This club has to win Champions League and when I have the job that I had
06:59 I feel extremely responsible to try to bring the club to the biggest stages, the biggest
07:04 tournament and then be fighting for them. It was a process but we are here and now we
07:11 have to make the most out of it.
07:12 You missed out on it a couple of years ago, right near the end of the season. How much
07:18 of that journey from there to now?
07:23 I think it's a learning process always. When you don't achieve what you always have in
07:27 your hands you have to take some learnings and some lessons from it. I think we did and
07:32 we got better as a team and we did the right things as well to improve the squad and now
07:38 we are here and I think we fully deserve to be here.
07:40 Under your tenure at Arsenal there's been the record against VARL, Olympiacos and Sporting
07:50 Games which Arsenal are obviously favourites in. Do you feel like you've got something
07:53 to prove in Europe now this season?
07:56 Well every day you have something to prove. At Elite Sport that's the thing. Tomorrow
08:00 we have to prove that we have prepared the best possible way and we are giving the players
08:07 the best possible chance to play as good as we possibly can to win the game. That's the
08:11 reality in sport.
08:12 It was interesting to listen to your thoughts after the game against Everton about the goalkeeper
08:16 situation. I'm curious to know what stylistic differences do you see between Ramsdell and
08:21 Rea that would make you choose one over the other in a different game?
08:24 It's something I'm not going to get into. I don't want to speak about how different
08:28 it is to Martinelli or to Ray Nelson or to whoever. Every player has a different personality,
08:35 different characteristics.
08:36 On PSV, I just wonder if you know the Mexican player Chucky Lozano. Where are you from?
08:49 Is he dangerous? Chucky Lozano from Mexico?
08:52 Yes, every player is dangerous at this level. Tomorrow we have a lot of things that we have
08:58 to control but I think the main thing is that we focus on ourselves and we play at the level
09:03 that we have to play to have the right to win the game.
09:05 Okay, then we're going to...