Hello and welcome to HYBR1D Powered by chinkseyMEDIA.
Media. This is my pre -match press conference
analysis of Mikel Arteta for the game between
Athletic Club and Arsenal. Here it goes. So Mikel
Arteta is just about to take to his seat. He's
took to a seat. that is going to generate something
special. We're looking forward to that and I'm
very excited again to step by step start to build
some momentum and start to have some wins. Okay,
so we're up against Athletic Bilbao who lost
at the weekend at home, I believe. We've already
beaten them in pre -season so we know we can
gauge what to expect. They haven't gotten enough
to the greatest of starts this season. We have
with the exception of a free kick, exceptional
free kick against Liverpool, current leaders.
But one thing's for sure, I expect Athletic Bilbao's
crowd to be up for it at Saint -Mene. They're
good at home. They finished fourth last season,
had a fantastic season. Probably would find themselves
slightly disappointed not to have at least got
to the Europa League final in their own stadium.
let alone won it. Because for me, they were my
tips to win it from the start. Obviously, I knew
that Manchester United and Tottenham were favourites
just ahead of Athletic Bilbao. But tomorrow should
be a good game, but one that I expect us to pick
up three points in. Can I just ask about a couple
of fitness issues you have in the squad? William
Saliba trained today, but didn't seem to be Martin
Odegaard. Is he available? No. So Gabby, Kai,
Ben and Martin are still out. or doesn't feature
ahead of a big game on Sunday against his nemesis,
Erling Haaland. As for Martin Odegaard, he's
obviously been ruled out by the gaffer, so that
gives a fantastic opportunity to the likes of
Evereche Eze, who's likely to come off the left
flank, and obviously Ethan Waniere, who gives
these been... waxing lyrical about. So this is
an opportunity that Wanyeri has been craving
for. He just had to be patient. Now the stage
is there for him to thrive on. And this season
there seems to be a lot of talk about the way
teams are playing, a lot more set pieces, long
throws and maybe a more direct nature in football.
Why do you think that is? the advantage of those
set pieces and throw -ins for a while? Evolution
of the game. The game is faster, the space is
smaller and everybody's trying to take advantages
from other aspects of the game that are obviously
key actually to win football matches and at the
end you have to dominate nowadays everything
in football to give yourself the best chance
to win the games. So yeah, like I mentioned on
the weekend, this throw -in stuff, this so -called
Stoke football and... Rare, rare, rare. For me,
I don't agree with it. I just feel we're multifaceted
in the way we can attack a game. So we can kill
you in many ways. 50 ways to die, choose one
type thing. Throw -ins is part of fine lines,
fine margins. In a tight game, if you can notch
yourself ahead, if you can etch your head. from
a corner, from a set -piece, from a throw -in,
from a scruffy goal, you can open the game up
like that and then obviously the opponent...
Because Arteta and Arsenal, ideally we want to
play sexy, amazing football and open teams up,
but obviously 95 % of teams we play against will
not allow that to happen. So in that case, we
have to kind of use every ounce... of know -how
and various methods and ways to prize a team
open. So if we're going to notch ahead from a
long throw or from a corner kick and it opens
the game up, then so be it. So be it. Mikel,
you've spoken a lot in the last week about being
from the area, how great Bilbao is. You played
a minute here as a Real Sociedad player. Do you
still kind of feel that or is there any sense
of that old rivalry coming into this experience
for you? Because obviously there's actually quite
a strong Real Sociedad contingency. Yes, of course.
We land in Bilbao. That's normally where I land
when I go back home to San Sebastian. It's an
hour drive from there. All my family is from
there. Yeah, yeah. So there's a few. There's
obviously Odegaard. played for Sociedad. Obviously,
you know, San Sebastian is in that kind of Basque
region kind of thing. But then you have Marino,
you have Mikel, sorry, Martin Zubimendi, and
then you obviously got Mikel Arteta, who are
from that kind of radius in Spain. But I'm not
sure how that influences the game, but we have
a number of Spanish, stroke Spanish, beacon players.
So it'll be interesting to see if Crispian Mosquera
keeps his place tomorrow afternoon even. And
for me, I'd like to see him keep his place. I'd
like to see Saliba come on, get some minutes,
get some match fitness in ready for Sunday. And
you just sense the passion, the rivalry, the
football atmosphere. And great to be here. And
I've been in this stadium before, so good experience.
Jordan? Hi, Mikel. Can I just check, has Martin
flown out with the team? Or is he back home?
He's back home. Just how important, I know you've
spoken about it before this season, but rotation,
especially this year in the Champions League,
is it a case of we're not going to see the same
starting XI in every game in the Champions League
because there's a chance to rotate and give other
players a rest and other players a chance? Yes,
well, it would depend on the availability of
the squad, the form of the players now. Unfortunately,
we have a few players already out, so that is
already limited in certain positions. But hopefully
we come to the point that the competition and
the level of performance of the players is that
high that we are able to do that very efficiently
to win more football matches. That's the objective.
Yeah, so people like Myles Lewis -Skelly need
a start. Ben White might need a run out. I think,
yeah, those two for me can come in. I'm happy
with Gabriel playing. I'd like to see Piero Hincapié
come on and get some minutes, maybe as a substitute.
And then obviously in the midfield, Declan Rice
will come in. So I felt, obviously I know I titled
one of my videos, he was dropped. Declan Rice
cannot be dropped. He was rested ahead of two
big games in midweek and at the end of the week
against Athletic Club and Man City respectively.
So he'll come in and I'm sure he'll start both
of those. And then obviously Martin Zubermendi
might get a little rest or he'll probably play.
And then you've got Mourinho who's on form. So
up front really picks itself. Madueke would like
to kind of build on his momentum that he is in.
The good form he's started to show is getting
a run of games on the right wing. And then obviously
Victor Gnoccherez would like to add to his tally
of three goals in four games. On the left, I'd
like to see Ebreche Eze start again to make his
Champions League debut. So I think the team almost
picks itself. I think pretty much same again,
but I'll change the two full -backs. And with
Kai and Gabi out, Victor's on his own up there,
are you going to have a chance to be able to
rest him at all and bring other players into
that role? Or do you think he's going to have
to leave the line now for a while without a real
rest? Well, let's see it against the Forest at
the end. Mikel played 2009. We have Leo can play
there. We have other options and other formations
that we can adjust to that. At the moment, Victor
is doing really well, so I'm really happy with
that. Oh, yeah, I forgot about Leandro Trossard.
He definitely needs a game. And then you've got
people like Martinelli who are off form. But
for me, with Martinelli, I think that if you
bring him in in this type of fixture, that's
taking liberties. I mean, we've got to have show.
athletic club respect, you know, so we don't
want to make too many changes. I feel like three
or four changes will suffice if we want to pick
up three points, which I fully expect us to do.
Hi, Mikel. Do you have any updates on Mikael
Saka, where he is with his injury? No, I think
there's still quite a lot of things to go through.
um very early to to understand when which week
he's gonna be available but he will certainly
be pushing to be available as quick as possible
as quick as possible i bet everyone was hoping
they'll say for mancy now for me from what i'm
kind of feeling engaging i don't think saka will
be fit this week although you might see him on
a bench but i don't think he starts against mancy
um but if he does that will that would be the
best kept secret you know for a long time but
not for me I feel like Saka might be games or
weeks away I'll be surprised and I'm bemused
if he features in any of our fixtures this week
Your team of course reached the semi -finals
last season in this competition this time round
with the squad that you've got now you've spent
£50m and the reinforcements you've got in all
positions do you now see this as a moment where
you can go one step further and possibly get
the final win the competition maybe yeah like
the rest of the teams that they have done the
same and they continue to that and they've won
it in many occasions that's the aim in the beginning
but we all know that it's going to be a really
long journey um the margins in this competition
are super small and and you have to be at your
very best when they want to give yourself the
best possible chance and yeah um So, yeah, in
terms of the Champions League, we're definitely
in that little batch of front runners. For me,
the way I've kind of segmented it is you've got
your Liverpools and Barcelonas and PSGs. And
then just slightly under that, I'll put us in
the batch with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Man
City. And then just under that, you've got a
couple of underdogs. I think Chelsea, for me,
are the dark horses for this competition. I feel
so in that case, it's about seven or eight teams
can win it realistically with, for me, four or
five outstanding candidates. So to reiterate,
Liverpool, Barcelona, PSG, Arsenal, Real Madrid,
Manchester City and Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
for me, are the only teams that can win this
competition. What in particular did you learn
from the competition last season which you're
going to take into the competition this time
around? That we are good enough, that we can
compete against any opposition on the day and
on top of that, that two things have to go your
way. You need to have a full squad available
when it comes to the most critical moments in
the season and then as well when the ball has
to go in the right moment or with the right decision.
it has to be as well because the margins are
so small. Hi, Mikel. Yeah, so that obviously
explains why we went so ham. We went crazy in
the summer window with eight signings of top
quality, immense quality, which for me is the
best window as a whole that I've ever seen as
an Arsenal fan and that spans a few decades.
But, yeah, so obviously Pep Guardiola is renowned
for kind of starting slow, making changes in
the first part of the season. And when it comes
to February, May, the business, sorry, February,
March, the business end of the season, they start
to click into gear. He starts to make the changes.
The better players are fresh. So with our stacked
squad, you should expect our key players to get
enough rest because previously people like Saka,
Rice, Gabriel, Saliba, Odegaard, We couldn't
afford to rest him, but now people like Declan
Rice, who's a £100 million player, put his feet
up on the bench and then had a little run out
at the end of the game on Saturday against a
very good Nottingham Forest side who made it
look very ordinary. So, yeah, it's good that
we have certainly one of the best squads in Europe
at this moment in time, if not the best. We've
got a very... strong case for having the strongest
squad in terms of if one player is out, the other
player comes in and there's little or no drop
off. So having a good squad stands us in good
stead for the latter end of the season where
it matters. Was part of the strengthening in
a lot of numbers this summer down to that feeling
when you're in the semi -final and your numbers
are short and you think I don't want to be here
next year where you're struggling to put out
your best team when it counts? Well, when we
were training we had eight or nine fifth players
and we were going to games with 13 players and
at that level it's extremely difficult but I
think even without condition we did really, really
well. We gave ourselves an unbelievable chance
and we were very unlucky in the semi -final not
to get through. Yeah, I mean, Mikel was right
-ish because obviously last season in the Champions
League semi -final was playing with Mikel Moreno
as a striker against PSG, the eventual winners,
who I felt we outplayed in the second leg, especially
in the first part of that game where we kind
of took the game to them, really pushed them
back. Not many teams have done that in... the
part of the prompts. We really pushed them back.
We just couldn't score, take our chances. Donnarumma
was in fantastic form and then they scored against
a run of play. So yeah, I felt like we were the
better team in that second leg in spite of our
impediments, missing Thomas Partey, Marino up
front and then we had four youngsters on the
bench. We had several left backs so I could go
on and on. There's no room for sentiment in football,
there's no room for excuses, just learning. I
feel like we've learnt from last season having
a weak squad, so this season we can take that
learning and implement it in what we want to
do to look forward and improve and to win this
competition for the first time in our history.
David Rye was just here and he was talking about
how much it almost seemed to still hurt when
he thinks about the semi -final and being in
that position. I hate to take you back to that
moment, but how much does it drive you to have
that experience as a young manager where you
get so close to the top of the mountain? Well,
it is that. And that moment you get deflated
and you have to understand what you need to do
to put yourself back in the same position and
start actions, actually, that matter to give
yourself the chance to achieve that. And that's
it. You take a lot of learnings from it. It's
painful because it's not only what we feel, it's
about the... I think the expectation that we
created and the real conviction that we had within
the club, the team, that we could go all the
way because we showed a very high level of consistency
and quality throughout the competition and learn
from it and try to be better. Yeah, so as I said,
last season is about learning. So obviously the
mistakes that we made were not having a strong
squad, not taking our chances. We have obviously
addressed those two issues with signing the striker,
foxing the box in Victor Llocares, more creativity
in the likes of Max Dalman, Eze, Wanyeri, to
name but a few, and then also having a stronger
squad. So if one player is down, injured, another
can come in and there'll be no drop -off, as
I alluded to earlier. There's no real excuses
now. It's just for us to go out onto the pitch
and start winning football matches. OK, a couple
more in English and we'll go to Spanish questions.
George from BBC. Mikel, hello. Just the way you
started the season, do you sense from the players
that after the heart of last season they're ready
to win the Champions League? But it's not that
simple. You are so willing to do and you want
to be better. a very clear intention that they
want to be better every single day. And that's
the start and the end. And there is nothing else
to control. Create the energy, the belief amongst
the players, the understanding and the feeling
that we can compete against any opposition. And,
yeah, certainly they have that. You mentioned
about flying into Bilbao, sir. Yeah, so I think
what Arteta's saying is... easy enough to just
say yeah we're trying to win the Champions League
but as I mentioned earlier there's six or seven
teams that would have the same outlook you know
Liverpool are joint favourites with Barcelona
at this moment in time just under them are the
current holders PSG who beat us twice so it's
fine lines it's narrow margins for me personally
Barcelona look the strongest for me. I would
have them as ever so slight favourites over Liverpool.
Not because Liverpool are better than us, but
because of the heritage they have in that competition.
And then obviously PSG, I would like to play
them again, considering how I felt last May when
they ousted us and knocked us out. They no longer
have Donnarumma in their goal to make outrageous,
you know, out of this world saves. He played
out of his skin on that occasion. But yeah, I
mean, we're definitely in that batch of teams
that could win. And obviously you've got Real
Madrid, Man City, who have won it in recent years,
as have Chelsea and Bayern Munich. They've all
won it in the last five or six years. So yeah,
it's going to be a hotly contested Champions
League, to say the least. Is all of your family
coming to this match tomorrow? All of them, no,
but a big majority will come and I'm really looking
forward to that. I don't think I need to add
anything to that. Mikel Arteta's family will
be joining him in his native Spain. You're getting
a lot of questions about winning the Champions
League and understandably the start of the season,
but Arsenal are probably the biggest club that's
never won it. Is there a pressure that you feel?
With that, because Liverpool won it multiple
times, Man United, Chelsea, you want to win it
obviously, but how important is it to win that
first one for Arsenal? Well, that tells you with
our long history how difficult it is because
we haven't won it yet. And that's the opportunity,
that's how I see it. The pressure is the opportunity
that thrives. That energy, that willingness to
be better every single day, to make decisions
that are in that direction. And every decision,
and if we weren't that much, every decision has
to be with that standard and with those expectations.
and let's give our best chance to try to do it.
Yeah, I mean, this Arsenal not winning the Champions
League or Arsenal supposedly never winning in
Europe, which we have in the 90s, 93, Cup Winners'
Cup. It was 94, need to check that. But yeah,
to say we're the biggest club never to win it,
it's more clear now. That is the case because
PSG won it last season, whereas before it was
Arsenal stroke PSG. You know, give or take who's
a bigger club or whatnot. Arsenal or PSG? Well,
that doesn't matter now because PSG have now
won it. PSG is also a relatively new club. They're
about 40, 50 years old as a club. So, whereas
Arsenal is an institution spanning over a century.
So, therefore... I think it's pretty clear and
obvious that Arsenal are the biggest club, never
to have won it. I remain so. So that should be
a big enough incentive for us to change that
this season. Do you feel that going close actually
helps? I mean, you worked at Guardiola at Man
City for a few years when they were knocking
on the door. Does that disappointment ultimately
help you get over the line? Yeah, and the big
clubs, I mean, they try seven, eight, nine times,
they win two. So in this competition, it's going
to be one and you fail much more than you succeed.
That's the nature of that. That's the history
of our club. And that's what we want to change.
Yeah, so obviously, since Mikel has kind of brought
us back into contention as being one of the biggest
clubs in the world, Europe, we've made steady
progress in Europe. So obviously, two seasons
ago, we... crashed out to Bayern Munich in the
quarter -finals in the narrow in the narrowest
of ways losing 3 -2 on aggregate last season
having beaten the likes of Real Madrid PSV convincingly
we came we came up unstuck against PSG as I mentioned
in the quarter -finals sorry in the semi -finals
we were really close so if If the trajectory
is to continue, then we should be in the final,
really. And that would be, incidentally, 20 years
on from our last appearance in the Champions
League final. And please don't remind me that
night in Paris still haunts me to this day. But
I would like us to get back into that Champions
League final, for sure. But for me, anything
other than minimum semi -final appearance would
be, I don't want to say unacceptable, but it
would be a disappointment. An expert coach like
Cinguri Valverde, I don't know whether you heard
him, said categorically that you're one of the
best managers in the world. What do you have
to say to that? And two, 20 years after leaving
Real Sociedad, you come back to your country,
this one, to compete, I think, for the first
time. What do you feel? Although you already
mentioned it a little bit in English. Well, first
of all, I'd like to thank him for his words.
For me, he's always been a reference for several
reasons. Firstly, because he's been in this profession
for over 20 years and everywhere he's gone, he's
left two things. First of all, successes in the
clubs he worked for and the mark he made in the
way he behaves, the humanity he shows and now
how natural he is in his profession. And above
all, I think that there's a way of doing things
that puts him apart from many other managers.
So what I need to do is learn from him and improve.
And the second question, I'm very glad to be
back. It's been 20 years since I was here professionally,
obviously in a different role. And I very much
wanted to come and experience the atmosphere
in this stadium. and to face a rival that's going
to be very uh difficult very demanding but i'm
very excited hello yeah um yeah yeah for sure
man um so what was it again so yeah basically
yeah it's just a love in between the managers
i mean yeah that's just um the modern day style
where both managers say the other one's great
the other team is great the opponent's great
blah blah blah But at the end of the day, when
the game starts, none of that matters. I mean,
Mikel Arteta may also return the favour and say
that Athletic Club's manager is also a great
manager and blah, blah, blah. But at the end
of the day, it's just about who picks up the
three points in the day. As for Mikel returning
to an Arsenal team to play in Spain, in that
region he used to play in for Real Sociedad.
Yeah, he did. Because I think the... If I'm not
wrong, he's in no particular order. He's played
for Glasgow Rangers, Everton, Arsenal, Real Sociedad,
and then he was in the Barcelona youth team,
as well as being on loan at PSG. So he was a
well -travelled player, playing in different
countries and whatnot. But yeah, it's not like
he hasn't returned to Spain. I mean, he played
against... I don't know whether the pre -season
match is any use in preparing tomorrow's match
or whether there are two different moments in
the season. No. It was useful to obtain some
information. and have a good feeling after the
match. But we know that tomorrow is going to
be a different world. This is the Champions League.
The level of both teams will rise. The context
will be different, and it's going to be a very
different game. Yeah, for sure, I agree. Obviously,
he would say that, though. But it's similar to
PSG's situation, wherein we played PSG around
September, October last year, and then we played
them again about six months later. in May and
they were a completely different team obviously
at the time we beat PSG they didn't have Cavaricellia
then Belé was not in the form that he was in
towards the end of the season neither were PSG
they clicked into the gear and they were effectively
the best team in Europe last season whereas I
kind of compare it to this where we've played
Athletic Club Bilbao in pre -season probably
about i'd say six weeks ago and um yeah they
were a week behind us um hadn't started their
season whereas we was literally days away from
starting our season so we was ahead of them fitness
wise and on top of that this is a competitive
match we're also away from home so all those
factors encompassed you know it's going to be
a completely different game so i have to agree
with mikhail on this one here And I hope we can
get the result we want. Hello, Mikkel. Good evening.
Rubio from Cadena Coppe. I don't know whether
you've heard about Lamine injured, Nico injured.
You've had three players in the Spanish squad.
Is it a big bother every time there's a break
for the national teams? Well, yes, because we
lost three very important players. But we've
also lost very important players through injuries.
And this is part of the normal process. And we
just have to try to get these players ready.
It's almost impossible to play 64 matches. And
that's why all managers and clubs need more players
and more resources. Okay, so what I took from
that was Nico Williams. probably injured and
Nico Williams is Athletic Club's highest paid
player now significantly their highest paid player
but he's their best player let's have it right
we were linked with him for a number of years
but before he signed his extension at his hometown
city club but yeah Mikel's right we've had injuries
we've had Kai Havertz out Kai Osaka's out arguably
our best player probably is So it's not like
we're not missing top players. William Saliba's
out. It's just having a strong squad. So therefore
the bigger clubs will have more money, more gravitas
to pull in the better players. Whereas clubs
like Athletic Club wouldn't really be an attractive
proposition for players, squad players, to have
that quality to accept that they're not going
to start to go to that type of club. I know that
was kind of wordy, but I hope you understand
what I mean by that. Hello, Mikkel. I would like
to talk a bit about the match. Athletic is going
to have a lot of faith in their 15 -20 minutes
push and pressure. And we'll see later on how
they plan the match, whether they play higher
or deeper. But what do you expect from Athletic
tomorrow? that obviously they'll try to do what
they want. And it's an extremely dangerous team
when they do that, and at home they have the
capacity to do that in different ways. And we
want a very different kind of match to what they
want, and as usual we'll try to diffuse their
quality and try to use our... best players and
play. The key of Athletic is in their high pressure.
Where do you think the key is? It'll be interesting
to see how Athletic tackle this game. Personally,
I feel like they are going to play their football.
That's the only way they can. They try and play
the passing, the typical Spanish. And I feel
like if they do do that, we're going to absolutely
spank them. I just think we're going to kind
of try to take to the centre of the ring, like
when we have done in places like Sporting Lisbon.
I feel like it's going to be kind of similar
game to that, where we just kind of puff our
chests out, act like we're the home team, have
no respect in the most respectful way, have no
respect in the sense that we're coming there
to win. And we're coming there to win in our
way and there's nothing you can do to stop us
doing so. We're going to win during this 90 minutes
and we're going to go back to London and take
on Manchester City. Well, when they do that,
get out of that pressure as effectively as possible
and to try to use the spaces they use. They change
the way they play a great deal, especially depending
on the context of the match and who they're playing
against very often. So we have to try to adjust
things. We're a very aggressive team and I hope
that it will be a very good match. Yeah, OK,
fair enough. If Athletic Club try and press us...
then I think we just need to pass it around.
So I think this is a game where we can kind of
play the game what we actually want to play,
which is the 22 -23 type of style, or the 23
-24 type of style, second half of the season,
where we're just kind of indiscriminately battering
teams. But yeah, if they try to press us, I think
we just pass it around and tire them out. Bang,
bang, bang, bang. And, yeah, I'm really confident
ahead of tomorrow. I know that Athletic Club
are a good team, but I'm more confident when
we play against good teams because I know good
teams want to play good football, open football.
And if the vast majority of sides try to do that
with us, then the outcome is usually the same.
Yes, Mikkel, good afternoon. Javi Beltran, dare
you ask a couple of things? Is Mikel Merino at
the best point in his career? And two, do you
think that Valverde is going to feel the absence
of Nico Williams very much in the XI? Well, Mikel
Merino has been at a very high level for a very
long time, but now the transcendence of what
he's doing is enormous. His quality, his character,
his personality, the variability he gives us
in his performance. And regarding Nico, well,
I imagine Ernesto would like to have him, like
we would like to have other great players that
can't be there tomorrow. But we'll try to do
the best we can with the players we have. Javier
Ortiz de Latcano from it. will be supreme favourites
for this game for sure. But yeah, Mikel did well
not to mention Bukayo Saka's name because if
he mentioned Saka's name, then he would have
to mention potentially Saliba's name and Kai
Havertz's name. So yeah, because we do have a
few injuries of our own, let alone Christian
Norgard, who has yet to make his debut for Arsenal,
official debut that is in a competitive match.
Welcome home. In Nico Williams' turbulent summer,
was there any interest from Arsenal in signing
Nico? Well, I can only say that Nico is a great
player that you enjoy every week here and in
the national team. I can't say much more. Let
me translate that as yes.