Arsenal's Arteta on title race, bouncing back against Wolves, FA Cup replays and the football calendar (Full Presser)

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on the Premier League title race, bouncing back against Wolves, the proposed scrapping of FA Cup replays and the football calendar London Colney, London, UK

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00:00 "In the Champions League and I'm fully focused on the time we have ahead of us with six games

00:05 to go. We are again behind City and we're going to give a real go."

00:10 How do you put that into context given what's gone before?

00:17 "The context is clear. If we win we are at the top of the league. That's the context.

00:23 You need anything else to be motivated. You need anything else to go to that game with

00:30 your mind clear and the purpose very, very clear. You have a problem."

00:35 The club announced some sad news today with the passing of Srećipa Škoic, their former

00:43 chairman and a great stalwart of the club. Have you got any words you'd like to say

00:47 about him?

00:48 "Well, I would like to say to his family I'm very grateful. He was chairman when I was

00:54 captain. It's a personal figure that is very well respected and loved around the football

01:01 club. He's done so many incredible things to keep evolving and progressing this football

01:07 club with very integral and good values and he needs to rest in peace now."

01:13 You've only lost two games this calendar year, you're two points off the top, nothing

01:22 is over until the last match as you said. People love to highlight the negatives and

01:26 talk about the lows but these are the moments that you really learn how to succeed. How

01:30 have you first hand as manager seen the team psychologically grow and develop under your

01:34 tenure here?

01:35 "Well, obviously it's been a very intense journey. When you're two beats at the top

01:42 and you're fighting with such a level, you know you're going to have to go through

01:46 that. This job, this industry is constantly testing your resilience, it's constantly

01:53 testing your ego. When things go well, when things don't go well, you all the time have

01:58 to be recycling that and you have to be able to navigate and go through those moments in

02:05 a natural way, understanding the context and looking at the positives. That's the best

02:09 thing you can do because that's the one that really helps. Learn and look forward."

02:14 Where do you see Timba's best attributes shine when he wants to come back and fight

02:27 for a starting place?

02:28 "Both positions in preseason, he played in both positions, right and left full-back.

02:33 In relation to the game as well as the players we have available, we will use him in different

02:38 ways."

02:39 How do you balance adapting the game when they're targeted so you can be a bit more

02:52 unpredictable when you're building up your play, but also sticking true to your style

02:57 and making sure they're individually taking risks and being different in their approach?

03:01 "I think they are constantly targeted. They're our best player like any other opponent. We

03:06 always try to find ways and prepare the games to try to help them. If they try to do certain

03:12 things to stop us to find other ways, other spaces, other players, other combinations.

03:17 And this is a journey that we won't stop because there's always something else that they try.

03:21 You have to adapt it and make it work."

03:25 Is it too soon for Timber?

03:34 "It is too soon. He's going to play a game with the under-23s and after that we will

03:40 see better where he is, how he felt. He looks really good in training but it's that last

03:45 big step that now we need to make it smaller and have the certainty that he's ready to

03:50 go."

03:51 How does the last three games compare to last season?

04:09 "It's what it is. We have to accept it. The two games, especially the Bayern one at home

04:14 in the beginning, it could have been very different. The Villa away, I reviewed it three

04:18 times and I think we were the better team. We should have won the game. We didn't. The

04:21 second half we paid the price for the chances that we gave them basically and we have to

04:27 move from there. Now it's about showing, well I don't have to talk too much, it's now about

04:33 showing against Wolves what we are made of and turn the situation around and the turnaround

04:39 can look really, really positive for us."

04:41 If you don't win tomorrow, would you say that...

04:44 "I don't think about that. I think about winning tomorrow.

04:48 That if...

04:49 I know the result at the moment. I know the week hasn't been good but still across the

05:01 season you must feel like you are really closing the gap on the teams around you and you've

05:08 just not got to fall away like you did last year."

05:10 "It hasn't been good because of the results. It's been very good in other experiences,

05:18 in other situations that we've done really well and who knows how good it's going to

05:21 be for us, for Wolves, or to fight better for the Premier League. I don't know. Nobody

05:26 knows."

05:27 There's been a lot over the last 24 hours about the FA Cup and scrapping replays and

05:33 you've won the competition. What's your thoughts as Arsenal have won it a lot, the most? As

05:40 the manager of Arsenal, what's your thoughts on scrapping the replay and what the future

05:44 looks like for the FA Cup?

05:45 "We cannot only look at that in an isolated way but with the calendar year that we have

05:50 in the next few seasons obviously we have to take the game out from the players so I

05:57 think it's a very good possibility."

05:59 There's been a lot of complaints from EFL clubs about the FA Cup replays being scrapped

06:09 next season. Do you sympathise with them?

06:12 "I understand every point of view. At the end of the hour, mine is to protect our players

06:18 and when I look at the amount of minutes and games they've played in the last two seasons

06:22 with no breaks, they're going to have to play in the next two years. That's not healthy

06:29 for sure. So somewhere, and I'm not saying it has to be that, but somewhere, somehow,

06:33 we have to reduce that calendar."

06:35 Looking at Liverpool, when Jurgen Klopp first took over, they had to endure a lot of disappointment.

06:42 They got to the later stages of major tournaments in Europe, they got to the later stages of

06:47 domestic trophies in England, it didn't quite work out for them. Look at what they've won

06:51 and achieved in the last few years and the amount of trophies they've won. When you look

06:55 at that, do you feel like Arsenal are on a similar journey to what Liverpool were under

06:59 Jurgen Klopp?

07:01 "You know that the better you become and the closer you are to fighting with the best teams

07:07 that this league has ever had, not now but in the history of the Premier League, you

07:13 know what the margins are. We've been at the top for many, many months in the last 24 months.

07:20 When you are there, there is only one way you can go. You stay there or you go down.

07:24 It's only one winner. You want to be in that mix, you have to go with any situation

07:30 that comes at us. If not, everything is a disappointment. You want to be for not being

07:36 in the Champions League for seven years, to fight for the league two years in a row, send

07:40 me a team that is on that."

07:41 Do you have any regrets at the fact that you might not have given them more opportunities

07:55 this season?

07:56 "It is a possibility. That's always going to come when you lose a game. When we beat

08:00 Brighton and we had an unbelievable week and everybody was talking about us winning the

08:04 league, nobody asked these questions. That's part of our industry."

08:11 What was it like to play against Walls?

08:15 "Unbelievable. So good. You can tell how well they are coached, the spirit of the team,

08:21 the difficulty they create against every opponent. Really good side. It will be really tough

08:27 tomorrow but we have prepared really well in the last two days. We had a great training

08:31 session today. Looking forward to it again."

08:34 People say that Arsenal's season has derailed. For you, would you say that is a physical

08:53 or mental fatigue? Is that too easy a conclusion to come to? And for you internally, how do

08:58 you recognise what goes a little bit wrong in those periods?

09:03 "A lot of times because the margins and the things you are competing with are decided

09:09 between that month and May. But before that you have to be nine months extremely consistent

09:15 to that. Let's see what we can do now to fight for what we want, which is to win the

09:21 Premier League."

09:22 A couple of years ago when you were going for the Champions League and you lost at Newcastle,

09:35 how long does it take you to find out what you felt went wrong and when does that process

09:42 start to take place for you?

09:45 "Sometimes it happens during the game, sometimes a minute after the game and sometimes a year

09:50 later. I cannot tell you. And as well that perspective changes. Sometimes the impression

09:55 that you have after the game becomes really different after two weeks, three weeks, four

09:59 weeks looking at it with a little bit of perspective. But certainly it's something that you have

10:05 to do because it helps you to learn and to be better and to have better tools to decide

10:10 better the next time."

10:11 Do you worry about the length of players' careers and the product of football in the

10:27 future?

10:28 "Yes, obviously the calendar continues to be more and more demanding. We have more games,

10:36 more competition, less rest. We have two options. We reduce that or we have more players in

10:40 the squad. But to be able to do that as well, your financial capacity has to be much better

10:46 because what you cannot drop is the level. We have a level that is unbelievable in the

10:51 Premier League and the teams that are competing and this cannot be dropped. We have to find

10:55 a solution to that. I think the players have to be listened to much more because I think

11:00 they are the protagonists."

11:01 What is your message to the players when they are coming under attack like this?

11:12 "That I am fully behind them. Thank you so much for the journey that we are together.

11:18 Thank you so much for being in April and champion for the quarter-finals of the Champions League

11:21 and being so close. Thank you so much for competing against the best team in the history

11:27 of the Premier League and the best team in the last eight years in this competition with

11:32 Liverpool and to be there with a chance to win it. Thank you so much for everything that

11:36 they have done because it is unbelievable."

11:38 What is your message to the players when they are coming under attack like this?

11:55 "Sometimes the opponents play and they are very good and you have to congratulate them

12:01 when it goes. Sometimes it is my fault as well not to change anything, not to make the

12:05 right call. Sometimes they play and they won't have that spark. What would have happened

12:10 if we scored two goals, three goals, four goals against Aston Villa in the first half

12:15 or two or three against Bayern Munich in the first half like we did against Brighton, we

12:18 did before. Who knows? At the end, the game state is so important in football and you

12:27 have to recognise that you can't just isolate a moment to make an evaluation. It is too

12:31 simplistic."

12:32 Do you think when you are needing something right at the end, for example, or against

12:36 Bayern in the latter stages, and you are looking for that extra bit of energy, that extra bit

12:41 of spark, that maybe some of your key players are playing more minutes than other rivals?

12:46 Do you think that is part of why in the latter stages of recent games you have struggled to

12:50 find something?

12:51 "I don't know. When you look at the schedule that Bayern had and we had and the amount

12:56 of games they played and they rest ten players nine days ago and they rest three days before

13:01 the game another nine players, it is different. But in these leagues they do what they do,

13:06 which is they cancel the games or they bring them forward to have more rest for the Champions

13:11 League. We are not doing that and we are putting even more and more pressure on ourselves.

13:15 But this is what we have. There is no excuse. It is the reality."

13:19 Should the Premier League do that?

13:22 "I think if you want to compete in the same condition, I think we should be able to have

13:25 at least the same amount of recovery between games. That is at least something that we

13:30 can do."

13:31 Okay, we'll go to 1030.

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