Mikel Arteta was back in front of the media for his pre-Everton press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday.
He was asked to share the latest team news as well his thoughts on our first trip to Hill Dickinson Stadium and more.
Here's everything he had to say on the following subjects...
**on Ben White’s hamstring issue:**
Yeah, he’s out. He’s evolving well, it’s not a major injury, but it will keep him out for a few games, I think. I don’t think it’s going to be (a major injury) and Ben is a really fast healer as well, so there’s hope that we’re going to have him in the next few games.
**on if Gabriel is targeting the Aston Villa match as his return:**
He’s pushing hard, as he always does every time he’s out, and he’s evolving really well. He’s doing pitch sessions, so he’s not too far. We have to see in the next stages of that rehab, how he progresses, but we are quite positive about it.
**on Martin Zubimendi not appearing in open training recently:**
There was a lot of management for a few players that played a lot of minutes later, so that’s probably the reason why.
**on six years as our manager:**
It’s gone fast, a lot happened but it’s been an incredible journey and I enjoyed every minute of it.
**on our first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium:**
Well, it’s strange, but very exciting as well. I think obviously one of the most iconic stadiums in the Premier League is no longer part of our schedule, but we’re going to have the opportunity to win as well, the opportunity to win at an incredible stadium that they built, and Saturday night, you know what you expect.
**on challenges we faced at Goodison Park:**
All the away games are always like this, it was a really tough place to go. We all know that, and we’re going to have to be at our best to win on Saturday.
**on wanting to make their new stadium a place we can go to and win:**
Yeah, and we had in the last few years, very good records away from home and those are the places that you have to go and win the game. In order to achieve that, we’re going to have to be really good.
**on what he enjoys the most about the festive season in the Premier League:**
That it’s different; it hits you with big demands and a lot of games and a lot of things happen in not only your professional life but in your personal life as well because there are special days for all of us, but I see it as an opportunity. I think we are blessed to have the opportunity to play when people are on holiday and can enjoy, a lot of families. I think the atmosphere that is created in the stadium is unique and that’s what we have to enjoy.
**on managing Zubimendi’s workload in his first season without a winter break:**
Well, in the small windows that we have, we make sure that we look after him and he understands that every possibility and every chance you have to look after yourself, you have to take it in this league, because the demands are going to be really, really high. But I think he’s coping really, really well with the league, with all the challenges that the league brings to you. A new club, a new country and I think he’s been exceptional.
**on Everton having to maintain the connection with their fans in a new stadium:**
Well I imagine that’s what they’ve been trying to achieve. It’s never going to be the same because every stadium has its own history, energy and moments and then you have to translate that. We have experienced it here at Arsenal as well, so yeah, it takes time.
**on if changing the culture at the club is one of Mikel’s biggest achievements in the last six years:**
It was one of them. It was the first foundation that we had to see, and I think that was done pretty rapidly. Maintaining it is something that is very, very difficult, and you need a lot of good people and very aligned people to achieve that. I think we have that in a really strong and solid way, but all the things, socially, the transformation has been around the club in terms of the size, in terms of revenues, in terms of the squad that we built, the value of it, the sporting success that we had, even though we haven’t won any major trophies yet, I think it’s very, very consistent, so we’re in the right place.
**on who our success has been down to:**
One man cannot really change anything, especially when you talk about the size and the history of this football club. You need a lot of good people, very committed people around you with the same vision, the same work ethic, the same passion and I’m very lucky because I had some of that. Then at the end you need a lot of support, starting from upstairs with everybody that makes decisions alongside you, but the most important ones are the players. I think the players have to buy into what you say and what you do, and I feel very lucky because those players, they give you 100% in the direction that you want every single day.
**on his admiration for David Moyes:**
I think that’s the word I’d use, gratitude and admiration. I think he taught me the love that he’s got for the game and then integrity that the game requires at any cost. I think he’s a remarkable man, I think the way he manages the club, the people, his players, he’s outstanding and I’m very grateful for everything that he did for me, for Everton as well. But I think in general for English football as well, because he’s been an example of how to behave in good moments and in difficult ones. It doesn't matter when you see how people are, and I think David’s done that, it’s something extraordinary.
**on what he’d like to get for Christmas:**
Win, win, win, win, win. That’s it. After, the rest will come naturally. My mood, my energy is coming to be much better, so that’s what I want.
**on if he thought he’d still be here now when he took over six years ago:**
How much would I bet, you mean? I don't know. If I say, OK, I never coached at the highest level, I come to a club that is in a difficult stage of history, and the recent past of the previous managers, I don't know. But you have to take this job day by day. I do the same on day one, do your best, do what you feel, make sure that people are on board with you and what you do, and that's it. And then at the end, in my job, at the end, it's about winning football matches, that's it.
**on if Mikel Merino is still an option to start up front:**
Yeah, yeah, he's certainly an option. I think he's given us every reason as well to consider him in a really serious way. You look at the goals that he's scored and the importance of those goals, I think he needs to be right up there.
**on if Mikel is more of a natural fit than Viktor Gyokeres:**
I don't know if this is the word, but he's a player that is on a job with his qualities and in the games that we demanded his qualities. Viktor brings many other different ones and it's great that we can have those. And now Gabi as well, which he came in the last two games and made an impact in the game.
**on how close Kai Havertz is to coming back:**
Yeah, he's progressing really well and quite fast in the last few weeks. So, yeah, we are really positive that if everything continues like that in the next training sessions, he's going to be with us soon.
**on conceding the first goal in each of our last three away games:**
It's about consistency. I think we lost one game in 21 away from home. So that tells you in this league the difficulty of that. But if you want to continue to do that, you have to hit almost perfection in a lot of things that you do. We've lost two games in the last kick of the game, two possibilities to win the games as well. But that's what we have to learn and play better.
**on how we’ve used a full week to train ahead of the Everton game:**
Well, sometimes it's the level of energy and consistent energy that you need throughout a game to sustain when you have played so many minutes in their legs. And other things are the small things like we talked about, those defensive habits or connections that you don't build because you don't have time to do that. And this week we had time to work on them and hopefully we're going to see an improvement on Saturday.
**on if atmospheres are lost from old grounds when clubs move to newer ones:**
I don't know. Sometimes when you change the location, maybe as well. But I don't know. We're going to have to go and witness how it looks like on Saturday night. It is going to be different to the previous one. You cannot expect to have the same one. But I think it will bring some good and positive things as well, I imagine.
**on how he decides who should play which game up front:**
So far in December, my headaches have come with having no options in the front line and no options in the back line. That's the headaches. I haven't had headaches the other way around. I hope that I do. It won't be headaches. It will be difficult decisions, but they're going to make the team better. The headaches are when you have to make decisions that you're making the team weaker or you cannot make decisions because you're going to expose other players or players that if you give them too much game time, probably they're going to get injured as well. So that's the headaches.
**on if there’s a game he has in mind for Kai to return in:**
I do. I don't want to say because, again, I think in that last part, especially after such a long time, that after the rehab, I think we need to be cautious and we need to go really firmly with every step that we take along the way to make sure that when he's back, he's back and he's back for the long term.
**on how he assesses Viktor’s first few months at the club:**
Well, I think the level of attention on him hasn't changed since he signed to today. That’s normal. You know, everybody was so excited to bring a nine into the club. We did it, we played, we brought a player with an incredible scoring record that had to adapt to the league. He had no pre-season. The first few weeks were difficult because physically he wasn't in his best state and he's a player that needs that like any other player in this league almost to perform at that level. Then he kicked on. I think he had a really good period and he got injured. And now he's back. But I saw a lot of positive things in the last two games that he's done, we need to continue to tweak and understand him a little bit better in certain situations and he needs to do the same. But that's about time. And we have full support for him.
**on if the scrutiny on him has taken him by surprise:**
I don't know. At the end you have to experience it. You can imagine the global impact that you're going to have to deal with when you come to a big club and the expectations are as it is. But after you have to live it. And living it is always slightly different to your imagination. But he's doing it with a lot of desire. I think his energy level, his commitment, it's absolutely top. And we are here to help him because we've all been here. We all need time. There's always moments and the strikers have moments. They score more goals, less goals. And we need to be there for him.
**on if we’ll see another level from him in the second half of the season:**
I think so, yes.
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.