Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal vs Sunderland, Timber, Mosquera, Jesus and disruption

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference before trip Sunderland(Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Sunderland. He provided the latest team news with updates on Jurrien Timber, Cristhian Mosquera and Ben White.

In midweek, Gabriel Jesus made some strong comments about his departure from Arsenal, and Arteta reacted, saying he was surprised by his former striker's words. There were also lessons to be learned from the draw at Sunderland last season when they conceded so late on.

Arsenal’s travel plans were affected in midweek, and with the Gunners boss so keyed on routine for his side, he revealed that they have done some special activities in pre-season to aid in adapting to such challenges. Plus, there was plenty of time to praise some of the top-performing stars.

Here is every word Arteta said in the press conference:

A clean bill of health from this week? Any issues?

Was Ben White limping a little bit as he came off the pitch?

He's fine. Excellent, he's excellent.

He's been really well, let's see if he can get this game or the next one, it will be around that time, I think.

Jurrien Timber, great time on the plane going out there to Naples, how long before he can get some minutes?

Let's see, we have another training session, he's been doing really well, he's been training with us now for a few days and he looks in good shape.

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I'm going to almost need to have a list that goes on for quite some time to mention all the categories that the men's team are in for the Ballon d'Or. The team itself, you as head coach, obviously David is the goalkeeper of three Arsenal players out of five in the Premier League, nominated on the shortlist for the player in the Ballon d'Or. What does that say about the job that everyone's done here at Arsenal?

Well, it says about where the club is at the moment, how well the club is doing, I think obviously the consistency they're showing in our performances and then those individual rewards because the team does an incredible job together. So it's good to see, they have transformed that into major trophies, that's the important thing.

Fancy yourself to win the head coach category?

That's not up to me, but it's a privilege to be there, that's for sure.

Declan Rice obviously would love one of his team-mates to win it, including England team-mates. He's kind of mentioned Harry Kane, do you think he should win it this time around?

I don't get to vote so I'll leave that to the specialists.

Talking about the quality players that you've got, the England team squad won't be announced for a week but there's a potential for you to have seven Arsenal players in it this time. What does that say about the core of your squad here?

Well, let's see what Thomas decides first, and after that, we can talk about it. I'm really happy with our players, the variety that we have within the squad, the balance within the squad, especially the personalities and the different qualities that we have managed to put together. So that's what we have to maximise.

I don't think it's been a while that there has been one team with seven players on the England side. For a team like Arsenal it's important to have that England contingent, isn't it?

Very important, not only within the squad but also within the staff, within the club, and to make sure that this culture and the roots are very clear and they are very attached to our identity and our values.

A lot has been spoken about already this season about Martin Odegaard, the form that he's in, but he seems to be developing a relationship with Tzolis; three of Tzolis' four assists this season have been for Martin Odegaard. Is there an understanding there?

Hopefully, those relationships are great between all the players that we try to develop. It's certainly a start there, let's see when we have a bigger example how this develops but it's a really good sign.

Champions League, your chances of winning the Champions League have gone up from 1.5% above Bayern Munich to now 5% above them as a favourite. But mainly the Premier League, you've got your 53.71% chance of winning the Premier League. Manchester City are second at 27.63%, that's a massive gap.

My interest is the probability to win tomorrow night, that's the most important thing. And to make that as high as possible, and in order to achieve that, you really need to earn it on the pitch against a really tough opponent, as we know.

But a note of caution because there's a 0.05% chance of relegation.

Just talking about Odegaard again, you mentioned him taking different heights and angles and positions to help the rest of the ball, and that's why he's been playing better. But how do you actually coach that game IQ for a player, or is that onus more on him to make those choices?

Both, obviously first of all the intention that you put in around the team, the roles, the clarity, the concepts and the principles that you have to apply to be efficient because you can be there. But if the timing is not good, the momentum and the shift in position or the rotation are not good, there is no efficiency, and that's what we try to clear with the players.

Everyone's obviously been talking about the fluidity of your attack, well, obviously, it seems like Declan Rice taking up those spaces on the right, Myles Lewis-Skelly driving in centrally from the left, has really helped the ball progression. How much do you think that helps the dimension of your attack, and how useful can that be against Sunderland?

Well, it depends on our players, it depends for sure on the behaviour of the opponent, what kind of attitude they have, especially in different phases of play and in relation to that, try to have the quality of our players to be as vertical as possible, as progressive as possible, and to put the best players in the best possible scenarios as often as we can.

You said at the end of last season, when you have a difficult period, I think the best thing you can do instead of talking is observe, look around you, see how people behave in the atmosphere. I know it's very early on in the season, but the team feel very settled, you're playing good football, you're winning games. What qualities do you look for in your players when you're actually winning, when things are going well?

The next day for example, how they do the recovery, how they interact with each other, their energy, the way they train the next morning, the attention they pay in meetings, when you look at each other, when you look in their eyes, what is the attention span, how much they are talking about the next game, what are the things they have to learn from the previous game. It's a lot to observe that.

Kai Havertz, I think a lot of people would struggle to say exactly what his best position is. So, first part of the question, how do you see his best position, how do you work out what his best position is? And just explain to me, to everybody, about how important this man is to your team.

The best position is in relation to what the game demands and what the team demands on the day. To be as efficient as possible, as unpredictable as possible. Kai is extremely intelligent, that's his biggest quality.

He understands the game, he's five, ten seconds ahead of the game, he knows what he's having, he doesn't need to think about it, he just acts. And he just makes the people around him better, which is another massive quality. On top of that, he's scoring goals, he's producing chances, his work rate, as we all know, is just outstanding. And he's in a great emotional state at the moment.

So, literally, game by game, his best position in your team could change?

It can, yeah. Because you can play as a nine, but what do you play as a nine? What's your role with the ball, without the ball? So, it's a lot of things. The position on the pitch, when you put it in the tactics board, you put probably the nine in the centre. But then what do you do when there's a set-piece, when there's a transition moment, when you're in high-pressure, the goalkeeper is right or left-footed? There are a lot of factors that are going to take that space and the initial position to a different dimension.

I've not got a supercomputer at home, but I like to work things out by stats. Five times before Arsenal won, there were only four games of the season. On three occasions, they've gone on to win the title. This season, you're obviously very confident if you carry on with where you were last season, that you're going to be the team everyone has to catch, despite the fact people are talking about City and Liverpool.

We have to focus on the next match we experienced last season. How tough the game is going to be tomorrow night is an unbelievable atmosphere. It's great to play these kinds of games. We know how ready we're going to be. We have prepared the game. We're going to finalise the game today. We know the importance of it. We'll be ready tomorrow to be on that pitch and compete like we always do, try to be better than the opponent and win the game.

How much does previous records against teams impact your thinking of the game? Arsenal have a fabulous record against Sunderland.

Last year, we dropped points there, especially in the last minutes. We learned a lot from that game, from the previous one. Tomorrow, again, we will discuss many things that we need to be aware of and where we want to take the game, what the qualities are and try to nullify them.

I know that routine can be really important to you, and making sure things are regimented on a match day, arriving at the stadium at the same time. When you have a situation as you had in midweek, where the planes go through that experience, and that routine can be somewhat shaken up, is it a chance to adapt, or are there challenges you have to overcome when those routines are shaken?

I love those challenges. I try to clear them in pre-season. So when they happen, we already experience them and we already know. So, get to the stadium very late, change the routine as soon as the players have to do something else.

Because when it happens, and it can happen, you can miss the flight, the train can be delayed, there's so much traffic, and I don't want the players, but not only the players, the staff as well, panicking. So, when that happens, adapt to it. Okay, we have another two or three hours on the plane, how can we use them? Play together, spend some time together, sleep, use it, but certainly don't complain and then use it as an excuse because that's not helpful at all.

Just picking up on what you said about pre-season and creating challenges, can you give us an example, did you deliberately sabotage the flight, for example?

We can't get that done yet, but just delaying the meals, delaying the transport, taking a different route. We've done many things, made the dressing room hotter, more difficult, more challenging, less beds. Those kind of things, I think, in my opinion, because we're going to have to adapt to different contexts, and we'll try to anticipate it and create the best possible conditions. But when there is not that element of surprise or stress on matchday, I think it's important.

On a more serious note, we heard from Gabriel Jesus after he moved to Barcelona, and he spoke about how nobody had told him anything regarding why he was moved; he trained on his own. After the Coventry game, Ian Wright said that he was uncomfortable with how Gabriel Martinelli, he perceived, was being treated. I know you've spoken about the transparency that you've had with your players this summer. So, are you surprised to hear those types of comments?

Very surprised, to be fair especially because with Gabriel I had an individual talk in the dressing room. I don't know what the words were said, it's fine. And the words that we used for each other, it was all about gratitude. So, I don't know, it's okay. Sometimes I understand when you have to deliver bad news or news that people don't expect. Those things are reactive.

Somebody has to be the bad cop, if I have to be. I have to be. And I understand. What is important is normally what happens three months later, six months later, when Trossard comes in, he's in the dressing room with all of us, the atmosphere and the relation you have and thanks God so far, with all the players that they left, at some point their relationship has been really good. I hope that's the same case.

Can I ask you about Ezri Konsa? It looks like he's made a really good start at the club and you've needed him too with the injuries too in that position. Has he almost surprised you with how quickly he's settled, how comfortable he's looked coming straight in?

Well, it's certainly something to admire because it's not easy at all and you should not take it for granted. But after talking to a lot of people that have worked with him, whether staff members or players, I already had a sense the way everybody was talking about him. That he's a person that is great at gathering people together. He has a real personality, a lot of leadership skills. And you saw the first day, he just trained the way he was talking, the way he was presenting himself. It was very impressive and so far he's done a really good job.

So his performances almost make you more relaxed with someone like William Saliba and his recovery in the sense that you don't need to take any risks, you don't need to rush him?

Well, relaxed obviously. We had him out and Jurrien out for long periods, and then we had the issue with Mosquera, so we were really, really thin at the back. So we needed to put another good player in that position, especially with the expectation that we have the amount of minutes that they're going to have to try to play. We've done it, and so far it's working well.

Just on Ben White and Jurrien Timber, it's been quite unfortunate that since Timber's joined they've not really been available at the same time for a long period of time. How have you found that? Because I imagine you would have liked to rotate them a lot more depending on what opponents would have posed as a threat.

Yeah, that was one of the challenges last year, especially when we have two or three injuries within the same line, sometimes they're in the same position as well. So hopefully this season we're going to have a bit more luck and we can manage that better. And if we manage that better, probably the likelihood of them getting injuries is going to be low.

With them two, is it anything down to the position they play and the demands in that position? Or is it just a luck thing?

Well, with Jurrien in the last three seasons as well, and we had the ACL, it was a long-term injury that has consequences afterwards. And then Ben was out, and you start to load that player for five weeks in our schedule; he needs to play 15 games. In that period, the probability of something happening, it is bigger. And yeah, the full-backs' position nowadays, they do have some huge physical demands there.

And I just had one slightly different question. I saw an interview you did a few years ago where you said one of the biggest lessons you learned at La Masia was competition. And I was just wondering how big a role that's played in your kind of squad, building a squad here.

Well, a huge one. At that point, I used different terminology. It was a great level of competition, the best I have experienced in my career, obviously, certainly at that age. But then there was a really great sense of supporting and helping your teammates as well. And that balance, I think, between us, we cannot just compete. I think we need to cooperate, and we need to understand each other's role, and we need to be happy for the teammates' success. And that's what we try to do, always.

Just reflecting on the Sunderland game last season, I know it was a while since then, but obviously, it's a tough night game like last time. It's a tough environment at the Stadium of Light. Is there anything, maybe reflecting on it now, that you could bring into tomorrow night's game or talk to the players about?

Plenty of things to improve, to be alert of, and some others that we have to continue to do because we did some great things that night, and that's the things that we'll discuss to prepare the game.

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