Arsenal manager and former Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta will be visiting Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time this weekend
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference ahead of clash with Everton
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference ahead of clash with Everton
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says it will be "strange but very exciting" to be playing at his former club Everton's new home. The ex-Blues hero and his table-topping Gunners team will visit the magnificent Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time this weekend.
Everton play host to the Premier League leaders in an 8pm kick-off on Saturday night. The match will coincide with Arteta's sixth anniversary as Arsenal boss, having first joined the club as a player in 2011 after seven full seasons with the Blues.
And the Spaniard, who played under Everton manager David Moyes during his time in charge at Goodison Park, said: "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."
Arteta had many happy memories of Goodison and speaking of the old ground, he said: "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.
"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."
Arteta, whose side also top the Champions League league phase standings, also had words of praise for Moyes, who brought him to Everton in the 2005 January transfer window, initially on loan from Real Sociedad, and is now back for a second stint in charge of the club.
Arteta said: "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 the 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."
Defenders Cristhian Mosquera, Riccardo Calafiori, Ben White and Gabriel, a one-time Everton transfer target, are all out for the Gunners, as is striker Kai Havertz and 15-year-old rising star Max Dowman.