Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal vs Bournemouth, Havertz return, Max Dowman and team news

Mikel Arteta was in some of his best form of the season, entering the room with a smile on what is a very hot, sunny day in London Colney. But the attention quickly turned to the weekend, the team news, Liverpool’s title win and the distraction of the PSG game on the horizon.

There was some good news regarding Kai Havertz while also a name-check of Max Dowman which caused some intrigue. Martin Odegaard’s dip in form was also discussed and what it might hold for the future.

Here, football.london has every word he said on Tuesday at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.

On the latest team news, Riccardo Calafiori?

Yeah, he’s out. Still out.

Jorginho?

Out.

Suggestions are the injury is worse than first thought?

Yeah, it's got a bit more complicated than expected. Thankfully, he's fine, he's feeling good, he's recovering well, but it was a bit more than what we wanted.

Is it like a broken rib or something like that?

No, I think I'll leave it to the doctor if he wants to clarify or Jorginho to do that personally.

There's hopefully six games to go this season. Do you think we’ll see Jorginho in an Arsenal shirt again?

I think so, yeah. Hopefully, if everything goes well in the next week or so, I think he will...

We will see him?

Gradually, I think he will be integrated in the team, yeah.

And with Kai Havertz, the opposite, kind of better than you thought, in terms of his recovery. I know we ask you every week, but that's because he's an important player and you suggested he is potentially going to be back?

I think so, I think if everything goes the way it's going at the moment and the way it's planned, I think he will have a chance to play a few games in the season.

Any others?

No, the rest are out.

I guess the science, the medical science, suggests that [Thomas Partey] will be involved tomorrow given that he was rested in the week.

Well, he could not play, he was suspended.

Yeah, but get some rest in his legs ahead of...

He will have a good opportunity to play tomorrow, yeah.

And is that something you would do because you're wanting him to be involved ahead of the big game on Wednesday?

Yeah, now we will assess how the squad is, what we want to do tomorrow, set some limitations that we have available and do the line-up and the possible subs.

And you've selected a 100th appearance for Declan Rice, which is achieved in less than two seasons. What does that say about him?

Consistency, availability, the way he's performed, the way he has adapted to the club, to the team. I think he's been an unbelievable signing.

The supercomputer.

You love the supercomputer.

The ordinary computer, even a broken computer, says you've got no chance of winning the title this season.

Yeah, that's gone.

But the supercomputer says you've got a 99.6% chance, even before the ball is kicked this weekend, of finishing in the top five. But while there's that little fraction of no chance, that's going to be the message to the players.

The message is very clear. We have to earn the right to win the game tomorrow, be better than Bournemouth and win the game. That we have to do, and that's the way we have prepared since two days ago.

Because if you do beat Bournemouth and Chelsea lose to Liverpool, which is possible, and Nottingham Forest lose at a buoyant cup finalist Crystal Palace, which is possible, you will then mathematically qualify for the top five. Is that something you're looking at, the wider picture?

It's a lot of ifs. The most important one is to increase our probabilities to win our game and that's the focus of the team.

We've just got a couple more. The camera showed some of the players that weren't involved on Tuesday. Seven important players to you. Two of the Gabriels. Tomiyasu, Calafiori, Kai Havertz, Jorginho, Partey, not injured but obviously suspended. When you think about those kinds of problems you've had this season with injuries, big players missing, red cards as well, other red cards, does that make you even more proud of what you've achieved this season?

The thing is that we live every day with what we have. I was very shocked just before the game against PSG at home because I was walking into the dressing room and suddenly I saw all of them together seated. It was Tomiyasu, next to him Calafiori, next to him Gabriel Magalhaes, next to him Thomas Partey, Kai Havertz, next to him Gabriel Jesus, next to him Jorginho. I said that's a starting line-up, and we don't have them and we haven't had them for many, many months. Then I felt joy about the team and what they are doing and how they are trying. Nobody is talking about it in the building at all. But it's happening, and I felt pride about how the boys and the staff and the club are reacting to these situations.

That's a very nice answer, a poetic answer. Actually, I've got a poem, a bit of a poem. I know you're a coach and you have beautiful spring-like weather outside, a bit of Tennyson. In the spring, a young man's fancy likely turns to thoughts of love. How do you stop your players likely thinking about the city of love, thinking about Paris this weekend?

We discussed that because the only thing I can control is our performances, our emotional state and how well we are performing. We know how important it is still, a lot of the things we have to do in the Premier League, even though we haven't achieved what we wanted. I take the opportunity as well to congratulate Liverpool and what they've done, the management they've done, how consistent they've been. I think they fully deserve to win. They were the better team, they had so many attributes, they had a consistent squad available. And we're going to try again. But up to that moment next season, now we're going to have to finish the season very strong.

Finishing second is your target though, definitely?

Yes, for sure.

You just mentioned Liverpool. How impressive have you been with their calmness this season as a club, on the pitch, off the pitch? Or was there a situation with the contract of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk, and there was no distraction, they got the job done?

It's good they had the distraction. The good thing is that they had them on the pitch all the time, which is something very positive. And it's a club, in the last 10 to 15 years they've been consistent, they're fighting for trophies, winning big trophies, winning the Champions League. So they're used to that. So nobody I think should be surprised because they have their level. And yeah, they made it because they've done a lot of things very, very well. So they deserve to be champions.

You'll face Andoni Iraola this weekend. You played with him back in the day, youth football. When you played together when you were younger, what type of teammate he was? And in the dressing room, who was more vocal, you or Andoni?

He was super talented, very skilful. He used to play as a winger, a winger coming inside. Really a smart player. Probably none of us thought that we were going to be in the position that we are in today in the Premier League. But, yeah, really happy for him. I think he's doing an extraordinary job. The way he... I think he has changed a lot of things at the club as well. The atmosphere, the players that he's recruited, the way they play, really impressive.

My colleague here asked me about the chances of finishing top four in the Champions League position. When you look at the progress and the development and improvement at Bournemouth, can you see them, maybe even next year, becoming one of those clubs that will challenge you and other clubs for Champions League football?

I imagine. I think in the Premier League, every club that is in this position, they have the opportunity to do it because now they have the consistency in the league, they have very, very good players. When you look at the players and the set-up that they have, it's really impressive. So, yeah, for sure.

Has it hurt you this season, not winning the league? You personally?

Yeah big time.

Do you want to expand on that?

It was in my tummy, yeah. I understand that it's a team that is being more consistent and it has a lot of ingredients that you need to win it, but it's very painful, yeah.

Because this was meant to be your year. This was meant to be if City didn’t win it, after two years of finishing second.

Yeah, but I never thought like this. It's not that simplistic.

In terms of next year, how do you have fewer injuries? How do you walk into a training ground next year and see less of your starting XI out injured and more of your starting XI?

That's another discussion we have. We have so much to play for, still in the two competitions, Premier League and Champions League, and the focus is that at the end of the season, we have many weeks to reflect and do the work that we are already preparing to give you much better answers.

Is that one of the key things you've got to do, though? To work out how to get more players on the pitch?

Two main things. Play with 11 players, number one. 38 games, if possible. And the second one, have availability of your best players in the best position that win you games. Ideally, for 38 games in the league. If you have those two things, you have a much better chance. I'm not going to give you the title, but you have a much better chance. Without any of those two, you look historically at what happened over the last 100 years. Not one single team has done it.

Sometimes I look around Europe and clubs that are playing in Europe, big games, they're helped out a little bit by games being put back to, let's say, a Friday night rather than a Saturday, or even postponed, cancelled, until later on to give the team more chances in Europe. Are you a little bit disappointed? I know you're playing at roughly the same time as PSG this weekend. Are you disappointed this game isn't Friday night or maybe shelved it back a couple of weeks to give you as much chance as possible for Wednesday?

Well, I think in this context, we have discussed that many, many times. We were a bit lucky because this last weekend we didn't have a game, so I think we cannot argue in this case, and at least we have four days, so we'll be very well prepared.

When Liverpool won the league last weekend, did you watch the celebrations?

A small part of it.

Did you sort of force yourself to do it? I mean, can you get motivation from watching a rival in those moments?

No, and they are your colleagues as well, and I know some of the people on the staff as well, and I know how much work everybody puts, and listen, they deserve to win it. They've done it in a manner, in a way, that has given no chance to the others, and you have to congratulate that as a sport as well, and you have to accept that there are reasons why you haven't been able to achieve it and try to improve, that's it.

It's not something that you sort of watch and remember and think, this is motivation for next season or the summer.

It can be part of your motivation, that's not the biggest part. My motivations are much more focused in other aspects than that one, but it hurts to watch it, that's for sure.

I just want to ask you one about William Saliba. We've sort of seen recently how the kind of Real Madrid machine works with all the Remontada stuff, and it's quite similar with transfers. It feels like the gears are going through upstairs in Spain. Can you sort of nip all that in the bud early and say that he is not going to go anywhere this summer?

I leave those kind of things more for Andrea [Berta] and the club to talk about. What I'm certain, because I had a conversation with him, that he's so happy here, that he wants to continue with us, and what will happen in the future, obviously it's our negotiations and things that have to take time and process and be on top of them, but I'm quite confident that William is very happy here and that's the place that he wants to be.

Can I ask you about Martin Odegaard? Because last two seasons he won Player of the Season Award voted by Arsenal supporters, and this season he himself has admitted it's not been his strongest campaign. We saw him injured earlier in the season, he went through illness as well in the mid-part of the season also. Are they the key reasons why you think he's not hit the heights he himself would say is his high standards?

There were many factors, I think. Obviously the injury, the long-term injury, doesn't help to give you the consistency and the platform to continue in the season, but yeah, it's very difficult. I mean, the level of consistency he's shown is unbelievable. For an attacking player to be constantly there, very rare, because there is always up and downs, especially the players that are very creative and they rely on the spark and creative moments in-game. But there are other aspects of his games that remain intact and he continues to do every week.

And a couple of years ago we saw Fabio Vieira came in and added some depth there. Vieira left, obviously, in the summer on loan. Is that position, the attacking midfielder, an area that you'd like more competitive depth, perhaps if there's a chance to rotate players or to dip players out if necessary?

We have a lot of options there. I mean, Merino can play in that position, Declan, we have Ethan there, that is his main position. We have players that can play in that position, we have Max [Dowman] coming up as well, as you know, very soon as well. So I think we are good in that position.

You were talking about the row of injured players you saw and the fact that you feel like no-one is speaking about the fact that Arsenal are still Liverpool's closest rivals this year. Do you think if you were able to finish second again for the third year in a row that because of the injuries you've had this would actually be a bigger achievement than the last two seasons?

I don't know. It's not for me to judge. I have a very clear opinion because I see what having those issues, the impact of that, because you just think it's the impact of what happens on the pitch on the day and they are much bigger than that. The numbers that we have trained with this season, I've never experienced it before in my life. But it's a lot of learnings to take and a lot to take to the team, to the club as well to learn and a lot of things especially that are going to make us much better.

Because as you say, a lot of people have had to step up when people have been missing. One of those is Kiwior with Gabriel. When you speak to people about Kiwior, they always say he's a really quiet guy. Sometimes a little bit introverted at his other clubs. Have you seen a difference in him and how he's confidence and how he carries himself the last month?

He's so likeable. Everybody really loves him in that dressing room. He's very vocal on the pitch. He obviously had a language barrier at the beginning when he joined us. Now he's much more open with the boys, and he gets on really well with everybody. So I'm very happy with him.

Can I just ask, you name-checked Max [Dowman] there. Is he part of what you're doing with squad planning for next season? Is he someone you factor into it?

For the near future, yeah. Let's see how this evolves but we certainly got a big, big talent there.

And can I just ask you one on Bournemouth. In terms of teams you could play before PSG, are they actually quite a good side given, if you look at the way they press, I think they're close to the best in the Premier League. They might offer you something similar to what you'll get from PSG in terms of the style of the team.

Certainly in terms of intensity and how they approach every duel. In the way of playing they are a little bit different. They want to achieve things that are very similar to PSG in certain ways. It's not to practice about them. It's just to be very efficient and very good in what we have to do against them to play the way that we want.

Just quickly on Calafiori, Jorginho and Kai, there's no chance of them making the second leg next week?

I wouldn't rule all of them out. Let's see in the next few days how I feel they react.