Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta previews the first match of 2025 against Brentford
27/12/2024
Emirates Stadium, London, UK
27/12/2024
Emirates Stadium, London, UK
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00:00You have more games than ever this month, from the next round of Champions League, Carabao
00:06Cup games. I just wonder how much do you feel your team has grown from this time last year
00:11and how prepared are they for some of the games coming up?
00:14Well, we're going to have to prove it. What we've proven already this season, and I'm
00:19sure of that, if that would have happened last season, playing the amount of games that
00:23we played with 10 men, all the injuries that we had in the squad, for sure we were in the
00:27position that we are today in all competitions. So the team has made another step. The team
00:32is evolving and is adapting to new circumstances. And now we have another one, which is more
00:37games with less players. So let's face it.
00:40With Raheem Sterling coming back sooner than you expected, you thought how hungry is he
00:48with the opportunity to play on the rubber?
00:50Yeah, he's got it. Because he had a good game here against Palav, he could have scored two
00:54goals, made an assist, and at the end he got injured after the training session. So
01:00yeah, that was his opportunity because naturally he would have played in that position. But
01:05now in rush I think he will be back quite soon.
01:08Liverpool obviously won again last night. They could increase their lead to nine points.
01:14How hard do you think they're going to be to catch? Or how difficult is it going to
01:18be for Arsenal to catch Liverpool?
01:19I don't know. That doesn't depend on us. We have to continue to be like a hammer. Be
01:25there every day, every day, every day. If somebody wins all the matches, congratulate
01:30them and let's go to the next season. But if they don't, which in the history hasn't
01:35happened, we will be there.
01:37What's the New Year's resolution for this team? Is it not to have any wobbles going
01:42forward, to be more decisive in certain periods?
01:48Keep everybody fit. That's it.
01:54I wonder if I could ask you about one player in particular, Leandro Trosser, who was really
01:58good tonight. Sometimes it feels like he's in and he's out of the team. Maybe you can
02:04see that a little bit in his body language, I don't know. But basically these next few
02:08weeks is a big opening for him. Just what does he bring to your team?
02:13Really good. They all want to play, always want to play. And Leo, I think he had in the
02:19last 12 months a lot more consistency. He deserves that. Obviously he's had a lot of
02:24competition in his position, so that's it. Raise the level, he plays at that level, he
02:28will play like anybody else. But he has the capacity to do something special in the final
02:34set.
02:35He does score important goals, he's got a knack for coming up in those moments. But
02:40I guess also he wants to, as you say, to star in the game and be a menace for 90.
02:45Yeah, well he's played with us, he's played as a left winger, he's played as a left attacking
02:49midfielder, he's played as a nine. He's a player that I value a lot, that we value a
02:53lot because he's very versatile, very competitive and he's always a massive goal threat for
02:58the team. So really happy with him.
03:00Is his attitude good? Is he always good?
03:03Yeah, Leo naturally is a little bit of a moaner. But I like that because he's very competitive,
03:09you have training sessions, always busy with the referee's decision because he wants to
03:14win and that's what I love. He wants to always be the best and when he's not there, he's
03:19not happy. But that's what pushes him, that's why he comes on the pitch, he can impact because
03:23he's got that drive, that hunger. I'm going to show you and I love that about him.
03:28Miguel, you've got a couple of days between now and the next game against Brentford away.
03:33How will you prepare your team? Will you give them a couple of days off?
03:38Tomorrow training session, the next day recovery for them and a full focus on Brentford. Now
03:44is the moment to go, go. Our minds have to be in what we have to do and recover because
03:49we have not now only but in the next three, four weeks so many games in different competitions
03:54and we need to be right at that.
03:56What kind of challenge do you think Brentford will pose? How different will it be to this game?
04:01Very tough I think. A really, really good team. You see their record, they have a home
04:06until last week. It's remarkable. They evolve and adapt it as well, the qualities in the
04:13team because of the players that they have right now. So very impressed.
04:18Do you think you'll have to rotate against Brentford or ideally start this same team
04:27again?
04:28I don't know. I will watch the game back and then I will watch the training session that
04:33we always do and feel it and have a feeling what is the best team to start and what is
04:39the best team to finish the game in relation to what the opposition does as well and an
04:44individual moment of each player.
04:46Wish you all a happy new year guys. Thank you.