• last year
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta reacts to their 2-0 UEFA Champions League win over Sevilla which puts them in a strong position for a place in the knockout stages
Transcript
00:00 Good evening everyone, if you have a question raise your hand and I'll come to you. We do
00:12 have an interpretation system, so Spanish, English, if there's any Spanish questions
00:16 I'll come to you as well obviously. Camera's ready at the back, I'll come to the gentleman
00:21 here, thank you.
00:22 Hi Arteta, congratulations on the win. Thinking about earlier on in the match, Lukaku Sakho
00:28 took quite a lot of hits, quite a lot of fouls, is that something you're worried about going
00:32 forward? He also came off a bit early, is the amount of fouls that he's taken, do you
00:38 need referees to protect him a little bit more? Is that something you're worried about?
00:41 Well, there's contact in football and obviously for the wingers I want to take people on,
00:44 this is going to happen, at the end he was uncomfortable to carry on, hopefully it's
00:49 not too much but I'm really pleased with his performance.
00:52 Was that the perfect response given all the controversy and all the off-field stuff after
00:58 the previous game? Was that as close as what you'd like to see, perfection-wise?
01:03 I think it was more of the really good thing that we did in Newcastle. We didn't need that
01:09 response because the team performed extraordinarily well against a team that they are really difficult
01:14 to play against and today it was other requirements, tactically we needed something else. We played
01:19 at home, we needed a different game and we implemented what we wanted really, really
01:23 well so I'm really happy with the last two performances.
01:26 And Kai Havertz, today he was...
01:28 Again, for me again, I guess it was the first time for me he was the best player, Newcastle
01:34 one of the best and today again he was really strong, really happy with him.
01:38 Hello Mikel, just the two wingers going full pace, that seems to be such a strength of
01:46 Arsenal's. When it works it's dynamite, when it doesn't sometimes the teams can't find
01:52 those breakthroughs. How much do you need both Saka and Martinelli at 100%?
01:56 The attacking players obviously had a massive influence in what we were able to generate
02:01 in the final third but a lot of times the process has to be better at the back as well
02:06 to give them time and give them advantages and have the space and the support that they
02:10 need to generate those things and today they've done it really well and obviously when that's
02:14 the case it is difficult to defend against them.
02:17 They've had to play with a lot of different centre-forwards across the season so far,
02:21 do you still feel you're looking for that perfect balance of the attack?
02:25 I don't know where that perfect balance is, it's what we have obviously, you look at Gabi
02:29 Jesus, I think he's only played one Premier League game for us and he played three games
02:34 in the Champions League and scored four goals. It's what it is but having Leo here that is
02:38 so reliable and gives you something very different to Eddie and him is a joy to have and I'm
02:45 really happy with him.
02:46 You got fouled four times in the first 17 minutes, some players might shy away when
02:54 they're getting that kind of treatment but he always seems to embrace it and keep going,
02:58 is he born with that? Is that just something he has within him?
03:01 Born? I think he's getting used to it. I don't think that's going to change, especially the
03:08 way he plays and the way he attracts players. He better get used to it because I don't think
03:12 that's going to change.
03:13 Miquel, good afternoon. I'm Pablo Montaño for El Diario Az and La Cadena Serie in Spanish.
03:18 It's true that Sevilla had a difficult season in the league with important defeats, Sergio
03:24 Ramos, Nilan Acuña, but did you expect such a weak version of Sevilla here today?
03:30 So little on purpose, in the end the only shot was in the last minute and at times it
03:35 seemed easy for Arsenal.
03:36 It's the game we wanted to play, we imagined it, but in the end the opponent has a lot
03:44 of arguments to cause problems. The two things they do best, I think we've nullified them
03:49 very well to avoid them and they were things that made us suffer in the last 25 minutes
03:55 in Sevilla and today we've corrected them and I think the team have been very, very good.
03:59 You took Takiro Tomiasi off at half-time, was that fitness related? Did he have an injury?
04:06 Yeah, he had some discomfort in the first half and we didn't want to take any risks.
04:10 He's played a lot of minutes as well and obviously having Alex on the bench ready to come in
04:14 I think it was the right decision.
04:16 It was a game where you had lots of control, Jorginho was central to that, Pinsen in the
04:22 first goal as well. When he signed there were quite a few people doubting him, but what
04:25 can you say about his influence over the past few months since he's joined and how important
04:29 he was tonight as well?
04:30 It's a joy to have him. He's influencing the rest of the squad, the rest of the boys.
04:33 He's enormous, he fits in the way we want to play, he's so intelligent, he understands
04:38 everything so quickly and he makes everybody else better. I'm really happy with his performance tonight.
04:44 As an important player for the team and for the experience of the young players, you've
04:52 beaten a rival of the history of Sevilla in this competition because they didn't have
04:56 great victories in the Champions League against teams of this level.
05:00 We're building the path, little by little they'll have these experiences and they have
05:04 lots of good ones. It'll help us because their emotional state will be better. They need to
05:08 believe in themselves because in this competition you need to believe in yourself and feel powerful
05:14 and you can compete with anyone. Hopefully they'll believe in themselves more and more
05:18 and that will help us play better and compete better.
05:21 Just going back to Saka's injury, can you explain the detail that you have? Are you worried?
05:30 It was just a kick and I was told by the physios from the radio he wasn't happy to continue.
05:36 So he had some discomfort but hopefully I want to assume that he will be OK.
05:44 Hi, Mika. Just on Martin Odegaard and Eddie Nketiah, they weren't in the squad again today.
05:50 Can you give us the latest on their injuries?
05:54 They're racing against the clock to be fit and they are trying their best and they try
05:58 to be here today with us. It was impossible and we have another 48 hours before we play
06:03 Burnley. We will try again and see because we need players at the moment.
06:08 OK, thanks everyone.
06:10 Thank you.

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