Every word Mikel Arteta said on Timber fitness, title race, Wolves test and Arsenal fatigue

Kaya Kaynak

19 April 2024 at 10:05 am·9-min read

What are your reflections on a tough week?

It wasn’t the best experience. A defeat in the league, a defeat in the Champions League. Now we’re fully focused on the ties that we have ahead of us with six games to go. We’re a game behind City and we’re gonna give it a real go.

How do you put Wolves into context?

The context is clear. If we win, we are top of the league. If you need anything else to be motivated and if you need anything else to go to that game your mind clear and your purpose clear you have a problem.

What’s your reaction to the passing of Sir Chips Keswick?

To his family, very grateful. He was chairman when I was captain. He’s a person and a figure who was very well respected and loved around the football club. He’s done a lot to evolve and progress this football club and protect the values of the club. He needs to rest in peace now.

How have you seen the team grow and develop in your tenure here?

It’s been a very intense journey. When you are near the top and you’re fighting at such a level you know you’re going to do that. This job, this industry is constantly testing your resilience and your ego. When things are going well and when they’re not going well. All the time you have to navigate and go through that in a natural way and understand the context. And go through the positives, that’s really important to help learn and look forward.

Where do you see Timber’s role when he’s back?

Both positions. He played right back and left back in pre-season. In relation to the games and the players that we have available we will decide

How do you help Saka and Odegaard when they’re targeted?

I think they are constantly targeted. Our best players, like any other opponent, we always try to find ways to prepare the game in the best way to help them. If they try to do certain things to stop us we try to find other ways, other spaces, other options. This is a journey that won’t stop because there’s always something else that they’ll try and you have to adapt it and make it work.

Is it still too soon for Timber?

It’s too soon. He’s gonna play a game with the 23s and after that we will see better how he feels. He looks really good in training, but it’s that last big step, we need to see if he’s ready and how it’s going to go.

Everyone else?

Everyone else is all good.

How does this season’s blip compare to last season’s?

It’s what it is. We have to accept it. In the two games, especially the Bayern one at home, at the beginning it could have been different. I have reviewed the Villa game three times and I think we were the better team. We should have won, but we paid the price for not taking our chances and for the chances that we gave them. Now it’s not about talking too much, we have to show what we’re made of against Wolves and turn the situation around. The turnaround can look really positive for us.

If you don’t win tomorrow…

I don’t think about that. I think about winning tomorrow.

But say you don’t…

That if. There are that many ifs…

Has there still been progress despite the results recently?

It hasn’t been good because of the results, but it’s been very good in other experiences. In other situations we’ve done really well. Who knows how good it’s going to be for us in Wolves or to fight better for the Premier League. I don’t know. Nobody knows.

What are your thoughts on scrapping FA Cup replays?

We can’t look at that in an isolated way, but with the calendar that we have in the next few seasons, we have to take the game out for the players. I think it’s a very good possibility.

Can you understand the complaints around them being scrapped?

I understand every point of view. Ours and mine is to protect our players. When I looked at how many minutes and games they’ve played in the last two years with no breaks, how many they’re going to have to play in the next two years that’s not healthy for sure. Somehow, somewhere we have to reduce the calendar. That’s for sure.

Do you see your journey as similar to Liverpool's under Klopp?

The better you become and the closer you are to fighting with the best teams this league has ever had in the history of the Premier League, you know what the margins are. We’ve been at the top for many months in the last 24 months. When you are there, there are only two ways that you can go. You stay there or you go down, c’est fini. There’s only one winner. If you want to be in that mix, you have to cope with any situation that comes because if not, everything is a disappointment. If you want to go from not being in the Champions League for seven years, to fighting for the league two years in a row, tell me a team that has done that.

Do you have any regrets over not giving Vieira or Smith Rowe more minutes this season?

It is a possibility. That’s always going to come when you lose a game. When we beat Brighton and we had an unbelievable week and everyone was talking about us winning the league no one asked these questions. That’s part of our industry.

What have you made of the job Gary O’Neil has done this season?

Unbelievable. So good. You can tell how well they are coached with, the spirit of the team, what they create against every opponent. They’re a really good side. It’s going to be tough that’s for sure. We have prepared in the best possible way the last two days. We had a really good training session today. Looking forward to the game.

Arsenal’s seasons derailing in April. Would you say people saying that’s down to physical or mental fatigue is too simple a conclusion to come to? How do you recognise what goes wrong in those periods?

A lot of the time the margins and the things you compete for are decided between that month and May. Before that you have to be extremely consistent for nine months. Let’s see what we can do now to fight for what we want, which is to win the Premier League.

You were very clear in recognising what went wrong when you missed out on the Champions League two years ago. How long does it take you to figure that out?

Sometimes it happens during the game, sometimes a minute after the game and sometimes a year later. Also, that perspective changes. Sometimes the impression you have after the game becomes really different after two, three or four weeks with a bit of perspective. Certainly it’s something that you have to do because it helps you to learn, be better and have better tools for next time.

Rodri asking for rest, Haaland and KDB asking to come off, fears for players' careers and product of game due to current schedule?

Obviously the calendar continues to be more and more demanding, and we have more games, more competitions, less rest, we have two options - we reduce that or we have more players in the squad. But to be able to do that as well, your financial capacity has to be much better because what you cannot drop is the level. We have a level that is unbelievable in the Premier League in the teams that are competing and this cannot be dropped. So we have to find a solution to that and I think the players have to be listened to much more, because I think that they are the protagonists.

Message to players when coming under attack now?

I am fully behind them. Thank you so much for the journey, that we are together. Thank you so much for being in April and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and being so close. Thank you so much for competing against the best team in the history of the rest of the Premier League, and the best team in the last eight years in this competition with Liverpool, and to be there with a chance to win it. So, thank you so much for everything that they have done because it is unbelievable.

Talk about the decline of performances in the second half of games down to the calendar?

Sometimes it’s the opponent as well. The opponent’s play very good and you have to congratulate them. Sometimes it will be my fault as well, not changing anything or making the right call. Sometimes the players don’t have that spark. But what would have happened if we scored two, three or four goals in the first half against Aston Villa or two or three against Bayern like we did before. Who knows? In the end, the game-state is so important in football. You have to recognise that. You can’t just isolate a moment to make an evaluation. It’s too simplistic.

Key players playing more minutes than your rivals why they struggle in the latter stages of games?

When you look at the schedule Bayern had and we had, the amount of games they had and them resting 10 players nine days ago and again three days ago, it’s different. In these leagues, they cancel the games or bring them forward to have more rest for the Champions League. We (the Premier League) are not doing that and are putting even more pressure on ourselves. It’s not an excuse, it’s the reality.

Should the Premier League do something similar to the other leagues?

If you want to compete in the same condition, we should be able to have the same amount of recovery between games. That, at least, is something we can do.