Mikel Arteta was back in front of the media at Sobha Realty Training Centre for his pre-Ipswich Town press conference on Monday.
Our manager was asked about the latest team news, his thoughts on Kieran McKenna's side and more.
Here's what he had to say on the following subjects.
on Bukayo Saka:
It’s not looking good. He’s going to be out for many weeks.
on how many weeks he’ll be out for:
Many. I cannot be too specific because I don’t know, but it will be many weeks.
on how big a blow it is for us:
Yes it’s a huge one. Obviously he’s a big player for us. You just have to see the impact that he has on the team, but it’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge, because we’ve already had a lot in the season.
on Raheem Sterling:
He’s going to be out for weeks. He needs some further testing tomorrow to understand the extent of the injury. It’s his knee and we have to wait another 24 hours, but unfortunately he’s going to be out for a while.
on two right wingers being unavailable:
We have to look internally at what we have and be creative, do a very good exercise again. How can we mould the squad? How can we adapt to the circumstances and be different? We cannot pretend to be the same. We’re going to have to be different and try to find the best way to do it and be very competitive and win a lot of games.
on if we will sign a player in that position:
I don’t know, my intention right now is within the team right now to get the best out of what we have. What is outside is not in our control.
on Gabriel Jesus finding form:
Well he’s certainly done that in the last two games. He’s not going to be just in isolation a player. The way we’ve done it has been collectively and we’ve been very strong the last few years at scoring a lot of goals from various players and sharing the responsibility across the team.
on Declan Rice’s role either as a six or and eight:
With the squad that we have, he needs to be versatile. With the qualities that he has, he needs to be versatile. With the brain that he has, versatile. With the age that he has, versatile because he can offer so much to the opponent in relation to the needs in the squad. Putting Declan just in a box is in my opinion doesn’t work.
on if he’s better in one position or the other:
No because it depends, so he’s going to play as a six against a low block in relation to what the nine does, if they stay with him or go with the centre-back. He’s going to have one role, but against a team that presses high and the 10 is man marking him, he’s going to have another role, so it depends a lot as well on the behaviour of the opponent.
on knowing when to praise and when to be tough on our players:
That’s a great point and when I talked about the priorities the other day of my five years here, the way they’ve been shifted has probably been to what you just mentioned because we realised that the first thing is they’re human beings. Then, that energy, that emotion, how the team is feeling about it, just always drifting that temperature to make sure it’s the right one for the game that we have in front of us.
on what he makes of Ipswich Town:
Very impressed. I like Kieran and have a lot of people that know him very closely and they always say great things about him. You can tell how they’re coached, what they’re trying to do. I think they’ve been very unfortunate in many games not getting the results that they deserve, so a very tough game for sure.
on if Saka will be back before the end of the season:
In football, with injuries, I wouldn’t want to put my ten fingers there! But I would be very optimistic that he is going to be well back before the end of the season.
on how difficult it will be for him to not play:
It’s part of the development of a player. At some stage, at this level, you are going to get injured – unfortunately badly. It could have been worse, it could have been something else that can take you out for a year. It’s how you react to that, how you overcome that situation. It’s a great learning process for him as well. It is what it is, he’s injured, we cannot change it. How are we going to use this time now to help him for the following years in his career?
on our ability to score more goals lately:
Nobody is right [on whether we need to buy a striker or not]. If you are saying that, you might be right because someone comes in and scores 40 goals. But what we have is what we have and we’re really happy with the players that we have. We’re definitely trying to do everything that we are demanding for and have enough quality in the squad for sure. How we use it, that’s something else. Then, the players, the squad, the team, they have moments. When we have those good moments, make sure we continue. When we haven’t got them, try to improve and understand what we can do to be better.
on if there’s more pressure on us going into this game after Liverpool beat Tottenham:
Well, obviously the margins are not big. Especially with the results that they are having consistently, it is putting the bar up very high again – which we expected. So we need to raise it again and be very consistent, continue to play the way where we continue winning and wait.
on how he challenges players to step up in Saka’s absence:
I am putting some ideas together. I haven’t got there yet, but I have a few. Then I want to speak with them as well, to understand how we are going to generate that and take it in a positive way. Because we are going to be different. We went through the period [without] Martin, we went through the period with five, six defenders missing, we went through the period without many other players. We will continue to do that: finding ways and taking it with positive energy. That’s it.
on if we have to find a balance between defensive solidity and a flowing attack:
It’s always about that. You cover something, you cover something else. That’s always there – the dilemma. We score goals when Kai was on the pitch, we score goals when Declan was on the pitch, and they are different profiles. So it’s related to the players, it’s related to the intentions of the team as individuals in certain moments of games, confidence... [there are] a lot of aspects that play a part.
on if this period will make him a better coach, finding solutions without Saka:
I think so, yes. Obviously we started the season with one of the thinnest squads in the Premier League. We knew that. Okay, what do we need then? If we are the thinnest, what do we need? I really dig into that. I make sure that we utilise every player in the best possible potential. Everyone has to feel part of it. You need to rediscover players in different positions, relationships. It’s a great one. It’s a really good exercise and the boys are willing to do anything we demand them to do. That’s a really good thing as well.
on if we still have the ability to do something in the January transfer window if we need to:
Yes, the preparation is done. We are ready if something happens. Obviously we didn’t predict the situation with Bukayo and Raheem at the same time. We predicted more if something has happened, for example, in the defensive line. But the job is done. Then, okay, if something has to happen we will be open. But the main focus is now how we should strive to distil the potential that there is in this squad.
on whether the fixture schedule is an issue for injuries:
Yeah, but it's probably more the accumulation of seasons. You know, for example, Bukayo and Declan they played over 130 games in two seasons. So what's gonna happen in the second one, the third one or the fourth one, if that continues the same way? Probably it's unsustainable, unless we find ways to, yeah, physically turn them into monsters, you know, that they can cope with anything. Because the fact that you train and recover is not a good pattern. Because that means that you don't train and the body needs to train, the muscle needs to train. You just play and recover, you start to lose a lot of factors, a lot of qualities within your body, the physical aspects that are key to performance. Not just to play, not to get injured, but to become a better athlete, which is very different and keep evolving as an athlete, and that's a challenge, but okay, we're trying to find ways to do it.
on what could work to make the schedule more sustainable:
Again, improve the athletes and have bigger squads, and I don't think it's at the moment the other option. I don't see it on the table.
on if the governing bodies are listening to the problems around schedules:
Listening? I hope they are listening. Whoever is in charge can actually do something right now with the commitments that are already in place in the next three or four seasons. Very challenging, very difficult I think.
on whether the issue will get addressed:
Yes, but there always is the but that is that, but we have this competition in January. One is going to be in June. Then we have this one. Then we have the World Cup.
on if Saka’s injury was preventable:
Probably, there are ways to prevent the injury. It happened very early in the match, so the fatigue element is not that important. There are other factors that we are looking at everything that we could have done better differently. But there is a lot of in controls as well. The action produces so much force because it's the moment that he puts the cross in to all the forces in the standing leg and those actions happen in football. So I don't know.
on the option of Martinelli on the right:
Yeah, well, that's the first one that we decided to go through, especially because he's played there before. He played the last game there against Everton in the last match of the season. He did really well. I think he did really well again the other day. He scored a goal, he created an assist. And it's a good option to have. We're going to have the options to play both footed as well. If we need to, another kind of profile in relation to the opposition. So, we are on it.
on the candidates to replace Saka:
Gabby has played there, Ethan has played there, Leo can play there in relation to how that unit moves. Kai can play there, asking him different things. So, We'll see, try to speak to them as well and understand how they feel about it.
on how Saka reacted to the injury news:
He was gutted. You can tell that he's not been injured because he was really, really emotional. He was really down and we need to lift him up because it's part of what we do. It's part of what he does. It's part of his job, big part of his job, he will be fine, but I think he's going to need a few days. He's going to immediately realize that he's so important in that dressing room. So his energy level, his body language, the way he communicates with the rest of the team has to be really, really good because it's the only way at the moment that he can help. So he better do that well.
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