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Mikel Arteta's Press Conference. Starting
off with the pre -Brighton press conference analysis.
Mikel Arteta has faced the media ahead of Arsenal's
Premier League clash against Brighton and Hove
Albion. The Gunners went into Saturday's match
top of the table with Manchester City two points
behind Arteta's side. Ahead of the fixture, Arteta
gave his thoughts on the Seagulls, provided the
latest injury updates. and much more. What have
you made of Brighton this season so far and their
style of play? Well, obviously, it is a club
that I admire a lot. And what they've done over
the last 10 years is incredible. They've had
different managers, and now Fabian has come in
and brought some very different ideas as well.
A lot of energy, a really, really committed team,
and they look very, very together. They have
a lot of quality. They can play in different
ways. They have versatile players, so it will
be a tough match. I mean, I... I think Brighton
epitomise what a Jekyll and Hyde team is. They
can beat anyone in the league. They can lose
to anyone in the league. They're going to have
peaks. They're going to have troughs. And they're
going to end up somewhere in the middle of the
table as they invariably do. But Brighton is
a side that took two points of us last season
and didn't lose. So two draws. So we know it's
going to be a tough game. Obviously circumstance
played a major part in us not beating them on
two occasions. One was the Declan Rice. Red card.
And the other one was obviously the Libre foul
against Jal Pedro, which gave him a penalty.
So obviously that should be enough incentive
for us to want to go and win. What added to the
fact that Manchester City will win and go top
ahead of us. You spoke about a really busy December
period. How helpful is it now to be having two
home games in this period? Are you going to have
some time to switch off as well as the boys?
Well, we need to obviously prepare for what is
coming, but at least tonight and tomorrow I will
have some time with my family that are here.
And there is time to enjoy, there is time to
work and enjoy the pleasure and the opportunity
that we have to be playing at this level in this
country with the history that we have here. Yeah,
I mean, Christmas period is a traditional period
where there's a lot of fixtures over the festive
period, over a short period of time. Points will
be dropped, points will be gained. So I think
it's a period where we need to kind of get the
rotation right, use the squad. And this is why
I think everyone has us favourites for the league
because... of how strong our squad is. We've
obviously had an injury crisis, firstly in the
attacking positions. Now the attackers are all
back. We now have it in the defensive positions.
But hopefully, gradually, we can get all our
players back, like Gabriel, Havertz, people like
that. Obviously, now we have the depth to be
able to cope with the issues that we do have.
Calafuri is in the top five players for being
the least dribbled past this season. Is he cover
for Gabriel if needed? Happy with his progress?
Well, he's done that, played at centre -back.
What he didn't do before is play as a full -back.
So we brought him as well because we believed
that he could do both of them. Those stats are
really important, especially if they're still
aggressive to win the ball. I don't want players
just going backwards as they don't want to be
dribbled past. So those two, Calafiori and Gabriel,
have a great mindset. Ricky's availability has
been really good this season as well. And I think...
Tonight, he played a really good game. Calafiori
has been amazing this season. For me, he's been
Arsenal's most improved player. Obviously, like
I usually say during the press conferences, I
think he has worked well with Gabriel Ence defensively.
He's always had that thrust going forward, that
energy. He's an untypical Italian defender in
the sense that he is more attacking, which is
different. Probably a more modern -day defender.
He can play centre -back and left -back both
really well. I would say he is the most attacking
defender that we have. He's usually in level
with the penalty box, just rampaging forward.
Defensively, he's really hard to get past. Really
strong, really committed, really powerful. All
in all, he's turning into a really fantastic
player. Kai Havertz is back in training for the
first time this week. How close was he to making
the game against Crystal Palace? Quite close.
I think it will be a matter of days, not weeks.
Let's see in the next steps how he responds to
that. But he is, again, a player that we miss
a lot. A player that brings the team into a different
dimension. I am really happy to have him back
soon. Yeah, I already mentioned Kai Havertz.
He'll be an unbelievable addition to the squad.
There's now depth in the attack. He can also
be another body of midfield because I do think
we do need another midfielder. I think we've
only got four or five midfielders to cover three
positions. So obviously, like I already said,
we need to rotate and use the squad to the best
of our and its ability. So having Havertz back,
I think we'll just be... icing on the cake to
what now should be looking forward to which is
a fantastic second half of the season as we started
really well and do you think we'll see gabriel
back across the next week or so we have to wait
and see he hasn't trained yet so he's still doing
his rehab but hopefully as quickly as possible
he can be back because we know the situation
now we have in the back line Yeah, Gabriel is
the best centre -back in the world. So to have
the best centre -back in the world come back
into the team can only be a positive thing. Please,
Jesus played well over an hour for Palace. And
what does he bring to the team? Yeah, he's very
fit. We've been gradually increasing his minutes.
But today, as long as he was OK, everybody was
happy to let him go. And before we started to
take risks and get him into fatigue mode, we
took him off. But I am very happy. Gabriel Jesus
now is super fit, raring to go. It's great to
have him back now. But hopefully he can get sharper
because he could have scored in this particular
game against Crystal Palace. Probably one or
two goals, in fact. But I give him a blind say.
Match fitness, rustiness. Over time, though,
I do expect him to now get back on a score sheet
again. Brighton at home last season you drew
and Declan Rice was sent off I remember very
well I was very hacked off in the manner that
we played with 10 men so hopefully it is going
to be very different this time hacked off I'm
sure what does he mean by that does he mean like
he's not happy the fact that we played defensively
or he was hacked off with the red card that one's
not quite clear it came in that period of the
season you had a few red cards bizarre red cards
at the start of the season but you haven't had
that this year can you talk about bit about that
i think the rules are different now so we paid
a big price with that rule and hopefully that
stays away and we continue to play with 11 players
yeah because if we have an injury free squad
or relatively and 11 players on the pitch we're
going to win this league you're actually top
in the fair play league i didn't know that is
good very good that's amazing What a bizarre
turn of events. Only in December, but top of
the Premier League, top of the Champions League,
in the semi -finals of the League Cup, the players
seem to believe that the fans are talking about
a quadruple. Are you thinking that's a possibility?
I'm just thinking about going home, have some
rest, enjoy one day and then start to talk about
Brighton. That is what we have to do. I think
the fact that Man City can also win a quadruple.
has gone over a lot of people's heads. So we
need to be aware because no one is talking about
Man City's chances of winning a quadruple when
they're only two points behind us in the league.
They are well poised to finish in the top eight
of the Champions League. They are also in the
semifinals of the League Cup and obviously they
have a favourable FA Cup draw. So I think we
need to watch out for Man City. It's a great
run, isn't it? A winning mentality. It is great.
We are here. Happy Christmas to everybody. Thank
you very much.