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Ya zimmi a’SEH! Yeah, yeah. Every word from
Mikel Arteta's post -Slavia Prague presser. We
had another victory to celebrate on Tuesday,
seeing off Slavia Prague 3 -0 to maintain our
100 %... to the Champions League campaign. Mikel
Arteta faced the media after the game and was
asked about the team's performance, our defensive
record, record -breaking Max Dahlman, Mikel Moreno's
goal -scoring exploits and Jurian Timber's influence.
Mikel Arteta on tonight's performance. I'm really
happy with the win. Four in a row without conceding
a goal. A really tough place to come. I told
the boys the game that we had to expect. A team
that is super intense, very direct, man -to -man,
short sequences of play, a lot of fouls, a lot
of restarts, very difficult to get any fluency
in the match. But if we were patient and emotionally
controlled, we were going to have our chances
and the way they set up, and we did that. I think
the margin at the end looked comfortable. but
I don't think it was a comfortable match at all.
Not only the win, but also the fact that we had
some players that haven't played much playing
and performing really well. Mikel Moreno stepped
up as a nine and scored two goals. Max Dahmer
made his debut, probably the youngest ever. Andre
Harriman -Anous as well, so a lot of positives
tonight. Whoa, I mean, ever since I've been doing
this podcast, that's the longest paragraph that...
I've read that Mikel said, which is interesting.
Very interesting. Well, he's obviously being
very modest to say that it was, you know, the
scoreline flattered us because I don't think
it did. I think we could have racked up a cricket
scoreline if we really went for it. But like
I usually say in the podcast, we're just doing
enough to coast through games and then just tick
it off and then... keep ourselves fit for the
next game. And obviously now we've kicked the
can down the road. Now it's a Sunderland game,
obviously, that we need to look forward to on
Saturday afternoon. I would say my perspective
of the match was the first 10 minutes being the
home side. Slavia Prague had a lot of energy.
They fed off of the crowd's enthusiasm, hunger,
endeavour. They gave it all they had. what Manchester
United and Fulham did to us as well this season.
But I mean, as the game went on, we slowly grabbed
control of the game, especially towards 15, 20
minutes. I felt we started to grab control of
the game and it became inevitable that we was
going to score because there was no way that
Slavia Prague would be able to... continue at
that intensity they looked cream -crackered after
about half an hour so as a result of that we
had a lot of space people like Saka had a lot
of space to work within and obviously he's a
decisive player when given space so once that
penalty was given and we went 1 -0 up it was
a foregone conclusion to be honest with you but
yeah it was a good performance we had to dig
in probably the first 10 -15 minutes but after
that I think it was a comfortable Good, well
-oiled machine that we are now. And it was a
professional performance. On Mikel Moreno. It's
a joy to have him. I always say the same thing.
It's his versatility on the pitch, the things
that he can do. It's his mindset. It's his leadership.
It's the way he is as a person. Today we are
missing a lot of attacking players and we have
to find different solutions. He comes in the
Champions League and scores two goals. And you
know what? I think he secured himself a starting
berth at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. He
was fantastic today. Got himself two goals. And
I think he's now become... a bona fide centre
forward. Obviously not as his primary position,
but if you play football manager, you'll see
like someone's primary position will be in green
and then someone's secondary position will be
like in a lighter green or in a darker green,
should I say. And I definitely can say now that
Mikel Moreno's primary position will probably
be a box -to -box. but secondary position is
a centre -forward because he scored too many
goals while playing there for it to be a fish
out of water. It's definitely something that
suits him as a player. And I'm now confident
with him to start there on Saturday. On Max Dahlman's
Champions League debut... What he's done on the
pitch is that he comes in, the first ball he
takes, he takes people on, he starts to dribble
and gets a foul. That's personality. That's courage.
And you cannot teach that. You either have it
or you don't. And it doesn't matter what his
passport says. You throw him in this context.
There he is with that word context again. I haven't
heard it in a while. And he's ready to adapt
and have a good performance. So I'm really happy
with that. Yeah, I mean, it was inevitable. that
Max Dalman was going to make his debut this season.
To be honest, I thought it was going to be against
Kyra Almaty. who we have at home, but obviously
this game, the context of how the game went,
where we were 3 -0 up with about half an hour
to go, it was begging for someone like him to
come on to win fouls, to probe and press their
full -backs, obviously to attack the spaces that
they'll inevitably leave. To be honest, I was
a bit nervous when they were really giving it
to him. I was really clamping him. I was really
going in hard and I was a bit... But now he,
in fairness, he dusted himself down and got up
and got on with it. I'm sure he's used to getting
clattered and clamped and bruised and, you know,
he must be used to it. But this is men's football,
so this is where you kind of got to balance his
well -being and welfare with his ability because,
yes, he's got the ability to go toe -to -toe
with men, but at the same time... He hasn't grown
into his adult body yet. So we've got to kind
of get that balance right. It's going to be tricky.
But I still maintain my hopes for him, which
I said in the earlier podcast, that I would like
him to rack up 20 appearances throughout the
season. I mean, it's going to be hard, especially
when we get all our players fit. But I believe
he warrants it and deserves it. Probably take
it down to 13 to 15, I'd say. I think he could
definitely do that because he's probably got
about four as we speak. Four or five even. On
eight clean sheets in a row for the first time
since 1903. That's a long time ago. So it tells
you about the difficulty of achieving it. There
is a lot of work there, obviously, to achieve
that. And the most pleasing thing probably is
not the record, it's the mindset of the players.
They are talking about how we can still do better.
We can see one or two situations that we could
have resolved better. So if we do that, we can
keep improving. And that record... will have
a bigger meaning. Well, I mean, it was up in
the air, especially in the last five minutes
where the referee gave a penalty for what was
a ridiculous decision when Ben White obviously,
you know, it was six to one, half a dozen to
the other. Ben White and the attacker both had
their boots at a similar height. But the referee
decided to give... the penalty which was bizarre
but obviously luckily he he retracted his decision
upon looking at the replay but um yeah no we
defended really well we're not really giving
teams an opportunity to lay a glove on us and
i think that's the key thing and that's the same
thing people were blaming a handbrake which i
was always saying that that's part of the reason
and the main reason why we went two three seasons
without losing to the top six because of that
said handbrake, which is we have control of the
game in midfield. We're well good at neutralising
transitions. And also we usually have much of
the ball. So the margins for error are very low.
And I think if we can continue that way, we're
not going to lose a lot of games. We'll lose
under five games all season. I'll tell you that
for free. But yeah, step by step. And once again,
we kick the can down the road towards success.
On the emotions during the VAR check at the end,
I wasn't happy at all and I clearly saw that
there could never have been a penalty, but he
made the decision so well done because he was
really honest. I think obviously the images showed
that it wasn't a penalty and I want to maintain
that because I think that gives you something
to defend as well and to merit and it would have
been a bit sloppy to give it away that way. Yeah,
I mean... It would have been harsh on Ben White
for him to come on as a sub and then give away
a penalty, even though it wasn't one. Obviously,
a lot of people would have probably expected
Ben White to start that game, but in my team
prediction, I did go for Raya, Ben White, Saliba,
Gabriel. The only one I got wrong was... going
for Myles Lewis -Skelly. He went for Hinkapie.
And in midfield, I went for Norgaard. I did think
he would go with Declan Rice, if you heard the
podcast yesterday, because I just felt like he
would believe that Declan Rice would show maturity,
experience, and just professionalism to not do
anything stupid and give the referee a decision
to make. I also thought Ethan Wanieri would get
the start. He was due a start. especially due
to his performance against Brighton last week.
And then I thought he would go for the front
three, which he did go with, which was Saka,
two -goal hero Mikel Moreno, and Leandro Trossard,
who did the press conference yesterday. So invariably
a player that does the press conference usually
plays. Saka was always going to play, and Mikel
Moreno needed game time. But because Ethan Wanyeri...
definitely needed game time more than anyone
in that pitch. I felt he would opt to go for
Mourinho as a centre -forward and therefore give
Ebreche Eze a little break. And yeah, I'm happy
with getting 10 out of 11, right? So the only
one that threw me off was Piero Hincapié. I thought
he would do the opposite of what he did and bring
on Hincapié for Luis Skelly, but instead he brought
on Luis Skelly for Hincapié, which was interesting.
On Piero Hincapia, whose new song and chant is
out on the channel right now. On Piero Hincapia's
display from the start. Very happy he can play
in those two positions as a centre -back or full
-back. Today, the way we had to set up and the
situation that we have to imagine with the ball,
I think he was really good, really strong, really
efficient and really good. Because now he's got
some minutes in the last week with two games
and the last minutes against Burnley. So we're
getting him up to speed. OK, so that makes sense
why he started. So it's kind of just finalise
his fitness, get him up to speed, match. fitness
on point going into the international break so
now we have three left fullbacks that are you
know match fit you could say obviously Lewis
Skelly's had his game time in previous weeks
Calafiori will come back in on Saturday afternoon
and then now Hincapia is kind of getting his
way you know, easing his way into the team, learning
to play with the players that we have out there.
So, yes, good competition for places. On turning
things around from the 5 -0 loss to Manchester
City in 2021, you mean the one where after 27
minutes, Granit Xhaka was sent off against the
best man city with 70 minutes to play. It can
happen, but that's a long time ago. Obviously,
we are in a really different situation right
now and we still have a lot to improve on. I
like the way he did that. You mean the one where
after 27 minutes, Granit Xhaka was sent off against
the best Man City team with 17 minutes to play?
Yeah, well, on the subject of Granit Xhaka, we're
going to be face -to -face with him on Saturday.
On the players celebrating keeping clean sheets.
Well, because we were able to nullify that from
the opposition. Obviously, the opposition has
very restricted ways to score a goal. And today
we gave him a few moments, especially in open
spaces, that we could have done better. But overall,
we're very happy. Yeah, that's true. I mean,
you know, usually the main reasons why teams
don't get opportunity to score against us is
because our team shape is very good. We rarely
make mistakes. And when we do, we get back in
a good team shape. People like Saka, Trossard
have been extraordinary in doubling up on our
fullbacks who have been extraordinary. You know,
Timba has been absolutely outstanding, has a
strong case to have been our player of the season.
I think he just edged out. Ricardo Calafuri right
now, who's been exceptional. And obviously, Gabriel
is definitely operating as the best defender
in the world without a shadow of a doubt right
now. He's the best centre -back in the world.
Declan Rice, arguably the best midfielder in
the world, definitely amongst the top two or
three. Saliba, outstanding. Juri and Tim are
arguably the best right -back in the world. So,
I mean, we've got players operating at an outstanding
level and I don't think there's a team out there.
Well, there is one and they're called Bayern
Munich and they're our next fixture in the Champions
League. So I'm not going to finish that sentence.
But Arsenal, Bayern Munich, we're going to learn
a lot from that game, that's for sure. Especially
if both of us can win our... games on the weekend.
They play Union Berlin away. We play Sunderland
away. If we can both win that and then the games
after the break, then it sets up a mouthwatering
tantalizing encounter between us at the Emirates.
Can't wait for that one. On defending those moments
in European away games. Well, the energy they
believe. Well, the energy they believe. We come
to a place that they create a special atmosphere.
You saw that from the beginning. They haven't
lost that home here all season, but they hadn't
played Arsenal during that time. So they have
that winning habit, and that's very difficult
to turn around. And we need to understand that.
And we knew, especially in the first 15, 20 minutes,
it was going to be very little play. And we have
to be very conscious of that and accept it and
then start to change it throughout the first
half. And we've done that. And I think the team
showed a lot of maturity again. Yeah, the atmosphere
was unbelievable. I would love to have been out
there. But yeah, like I said, the game was literally
almost identical to the Fulham game where...
Obviously, they used the crowd, they played off
the crowd's energy and they just went for it,
had nothing to lose. But as the game wore on,
we just slowly took control of the game. And
then after that, it was just a matter of when
and how, not if. On William Saliba stepping into
midfield more often tonight, that was related
about the way they press and the way the nine
makes the press and the way where we could find
certain advantages and time. Because if not,
everything is absolutely man -to -man. And it's
a really difficult game to play constantly, especially
after the direct play. And we could have done
better. It's something we hadn't had time to
train, really. So to have more solutions and
to try things, and to especially put players
in their qualities with a bit more time on the
ball, it's something that I wanted to try. Well,
this vertical football that he mentioned yesterday,
you know, the direct play of the ball in the
air. You know, the ball being in the air. It
wasn't in the air much in the first half, I would
say. I think they did go more direct long ball
towards the second half. But in the first half,
they just kind of used endeavour. They played
off endeavour and spirit, really. And obviously,
as we got one, two and three goals ahead, they
became dispirited. But yeah, it was a good game
of football. But I think we've just, you know,
in these away games, we're accustomed to dealing
with it, no matter how... No matter how the fans
are, no matter how hostile it is, we've gone
to sport in Lisbon, places like that, and dismantled
them. So Slavia Prague was never going to be
an issue if we had the right mentality, that's
for sure. On what's changed for Mikel's goal
-scoring prowess? My view was always that he
had really good timing and the capacity to finish
in the box, especially one touch. And then talking
to him and making sure that he plays closer to
the box and he identifies the opportunities,
the timing, the way he needs to attack the spaces
in relation to how they defend the box, which
today was a bit different as well, the way they
set up. And then it's obviously his quality,
his willingness to learn and practice every day.
Yeah, it's just like I said already earlier on
in this podcast that Mikael Mourinho's definitely
a bona fide centre -forward as a secondary position,
definitely. No doubt about that now. He had an
amazing second goal as a proper centre -forward,
old -school, get your head on it, get a knock,
you know, back header into the back of the net.
And then he'd done his customary celebration
where he runs around the corner flag paying homage
to his father. Yeah, Mikel Moreno, another two
goals. I believe that's three for the season.
Roland Sunderland. And hopefully he can get a
start in that one as well. On how we can maintain
confidence in the team. Well, first of all, feeling
prepared. So now it's about the next game and
feeling prepared. doing the right things to get
to the game with a lot of clarity and in a really
good emotional state. And I'm sure we will do
that and then perform at this level to make it
really difficult for the opponent and try to
earn the right to win the game. Yeah, winning
breeds winning. And I think that's the main reason
why Mikel Arteta kept the bulk of the team together.
So obviously, I would say the spine of the team.
is Raya, Timba, Saliba, Gabriel, Declan Rice,
and Saka. So that's the spine. Everyone else
is filling in. They're all the fillers, and that
includes people like Zubamendi. It includes people
like Calafiori. They're filling in. But if you
can... you know, play at a high level, you're
going to remain in the team. But obviously, because
we're in cup competitions, you can kind of make
changes and give people a rest and bring in other
players. But I think if we can keep those five
or six players fit throughout the bulk of the
season, then we're going to definitely be lifting
multiple trophies. No doubt about that. On Drury
and Timber, extraordinary. For me, he's been
phenomenal in every department. I think he's
taken his level and the team's level to a different
dimension against his opponents. The way he penetrates.
Jesus! The way he wins duels. The way he understands
the game. The way he wants to make things happy.
The way he wants to make things happen. A big
example for the rest of his teammates. Yeah,
Drury and Timber. I think in about a couple of
months, I'm going to literally come out and say
he is the best right -back in the world. But
for now, I'm happy saying he's one of the best
right -backs in the world, even though I quietly
believe he is the best. But he's definitely a
world -class footballer, a world -class operator,
almost impossible to get round, too strong, exceptional
on the ball, great dribbler. developing a great
chemistry with Bukayo Saka as they seem to be
close friends on and off the pitch, both the
same age, 24. Both have a good relationship with
the Lord, God Almighty. But no, all jokes aside,
Drury and Timber, I think the only thing really
he hasn't got is pace. But other than that, he
is the ultimate footballer. There's nothing he
can't do. I would like to see him... Get a few
more assists, especially from crosses. But that's
me picking at clutching the straws there. We're
talking about an outstanding world beater here.
And I'm just happy to have him at our football
club.