Here’s the embargoed section of Mikel Arteta’s press conference, in which the Arsenal manager is asked about whether he’d take a draw against Man City, some Declan Rice comments, and more.
**On whether he’d take a draw if that was offered?**
No, we want to win the game. We are there to win the game. We haven’t talked about that, guys. We need to win the game and we are preparing to win the game. No difference to any stadium that we’ve been in the last five years. There’s no change there.
**On whether the 0-0 there two seasons again was seen as a good result …**
No, because because you have to make it good as well the next game. Or we should have made it even better the previous game that we had the opportunity to do it. We’re going to play the game and the circumstances and the context of that in the best possible way to win it.
The outcome, we don’t know.
**Rice’s comments about doing the basics, and whether he’s tried to relieve some of the pressure …**
It’s part of football, part of the moment, when you are missing certain players, that the relationships, the cohesion is a bit different. But yeah, to work on that means sometimes not talking too much about it and take more honesty, more responsibility and do it again.
**Having spoken about ‘themes’ for games, is there one for this fixture?**
Good question, but obviously we’re not going to talk about what we’re talking about in the dressing room here.
**Does he need to be creative in his preparations?**
No. Every game has its particular aspects and the thing is that you have to be very much aligned in what you want to see from the team. That’s not going to change, that’s part of the preparation.
Sometimes they are more visual and sometimes they are more simple, as you said. I think it’s crystal clear what we are playing for, what we have ahead of us, the opportunities that we want to achieve and that’s it.
**Being top for 248 days in 2023-24, but being overtaken by City at the end – what lessons did he learn from that season?**
Get all the players available in April, I said it many times. That’s the biggest lesson, April, May, the whole squad available, your best players on the pitch as much as possible. Then the probability to win it increases dramatically.
It’s as simple … and as difficult as that.
**Should Arsenal ‘park the bus’ on Sunday?**
We’re not going to propose a game like this because we never do that. Sunday’s opponent is that good, and in City’s case you’re going to have to have moments that you’re going to have to defend deep in your box for periods of time and that’s the reality.
**On Guardiola’s comments about how he believes Arteta will adjust certain things …**
That’s our reality as managers and as coaches and as opponents every time. And it happens, it happens every game. There’s nothing that’s going to happen differently that they will try to do.
We will try to do something, they will try something else. Five minutes later it will change, it will adapt and that’s the flow of the game. That’s when the game is there to be adapted to because when the game becomes chaotic, it’s not adaptation, it’s action and that’s it.
There is nothing else to do.