After the outpouring of emotion that followed Max Dowman’s late goal against Everton, Mikel Arteta was keen to draw a line under Saturday’s win and the scenes of jubilation that followed. With Bayer Leverkusen arriving for Tuesday’s Champions League second leg, the manager made it clear the focus has already shifted.
“It was a significant moment, a really nice moment to live together,” said Arteta in his opening gambit during Monday’s press conference, “but that’s in the past, and now the full focus is on tomorrow.”
The Gunners may have escaped the BayArena with a 1-1 draw last week, but there is still plenty of work to do if they are to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for a third consecutive season.
Kasper Hjulmund’s side were impressively disciplined during that encounter, limiting Arsenal’s attacking threat while posing problems of their own in transition and from set pieces.
After the match, Arteta pointed to the lapse in concentration that allowed Leverkusen to score early in the second half and promised improvements. Reflecting further on the performance, it sounds like he was not especially pleased with the opening period either.
“Especially in the first half \[we were poor\],” he said. “And especially a lot of actions that we didn’t even finish the actions, and we allowed counter-attacks, which is the worst thing that we can do against them.
“We will step up, we’ll make better decisions for sure and be more of a threat, and that’s the intention.
“A lot of factors will contribute for us to be in the quarter-finals tomorrow night after the game, and we need to put every single element that we have to be in our favour to achieve that.”
Asked what he expects from the visitors, who drew with Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich at the weekend, Arteta suggested the challenge will look familiar.
“Very much the same. Watching them play against Bayern Munich at the weekend, very similar – really well-coached, a team with a very clear structure and really good individuals, if \[they did\] not have them, they’d obviously not be in this stage of the competition that we are in right now.
“So we know what we have to do. And in front of our crowd, with our people, put in all the energy in the world again and hopefully we’re going to do it.
“They have a lot of quality individually in a lot of areas of the pitch and as every team they have their strengths, their weaknesses, and we’ll try to target them.”
In terms of team news, Arteta confirmed both Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber would miss the match, but Leandro Trossard, who has sat out the last two games, is available.