Here is every word from Mikel Arteta’s post-match press conference following Arsenal’s pre-season clash with Borussia Dortmund
Mikel Arteta spoke to the media following Arsenal defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup
Mikel Arteta spoke to the media following Arsenal defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the Emirates Cup(Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
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Mikel Arteta faced the media after his Arsenal side lost a second successive pre-season friendly, this time against Borussia Dortmund. It was a game that the home side dominated on the whole, but looked, again, very frail at the back and were hit twice on the counter and even conceded from a set-piece.
However, there were positives to take from the day, including another Christos Tzolis masterclass. The winger bagged another assist, making it four goal contributions in four games, plus he won a penalty that was dispatched by Viktor Gyokeres, who did not have a good game.
Arteta faced questions about the return dates of several members of his Arsenal squad, including Jurrien Timber and William Saliba. He also gave a reaction to Bruno Guimaraes’ arrival at the club.
Here is every word Arteta said to the press after the clash:
They won the game, you won the penalty shootout… 1-1!
It doesn't really work like this. So yeah, we lost the game, obviously not happy about it. And yeah, things are a little bit. We have to improve certain players that need to get more minutes and rhythm, which is going to be really helpful what we went through today, especially certain parts of the game. And yeah, and tomorrow, finally, everybody back.
This time, pre-season, last season, I think you lost a game, you went on obviously to have the season that you had…
We lost two, actually. Spurs and Villarreal.
So is there any reason for fans to get too concerned?
No, I mean, I think it has to hurt when you lose a football match. It has to hurt whether it's a friendly match, a test or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, we know where we are. We know that we are missing still a lot of players and some players that haven't had enough training. And yeah, sometimes it's good.
Obviously a big bright spot was for the fans to see Bruno in his Arsenal shirt before the match. Now you can talk about him. Why did you want to bring him here?
I'm delighted to have him. Why? Well, we see very clearly, especially the energy that he brought immediately to the training ground, the hunger, the desire to come here and create a big history at the club. And that's the ambition that we need. We want to go to the next level and very, very much convinced that we're going to need players with such a personality, desire and character to push everybody inside the organisation to go even higher.
He talks about being a warrior. The fans love to hear that kind of language don’t they?
I think he's proved that. I think not many people would question associating him with that word. So we know what he's going to bring to the club.
Can I ask you about some of the players that aren't here? Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, we haven't heard the reaction to where they're back yet. So what was the timeline of both of those?
I cannot be very precise with that. But Jurrien is progressing really well. He's on the pitch, he's doing quite a lot right now. But he's still weeks away. I cannot tell you how much. And William is in rest mode at the moment for two weeks. He had to do almost nothing, don't aggravate the injury. It's going to take some time to heal. We know that. And as quick as we have more news, we can inform.
And the English and Spanish players, what do you expect of them back?
Some of them were back today, already watching the game. Some of them, Bukayo was here yesterday, a bit earlier than expected. Which is great to see. I think it's a really good sign. And tomorrow everybody will be available to start the training programme.
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You spoke there about the off-field qualities that Bruno is going to bring to your squad. Could you maybe reflect a little bit about what he's going to offer you on the pitch that will improve you as a team?
On the pitch, versatility to play in two different positions in relation to what we want or the opponent does. A player which obviously has tremendous timing and intuition to win the ball back and progress play very, very fast. He's a player that is very comfortable putting people through, moving between the lines, moving in behind.
And then he's a goal threat. He's got a smell and a really good timing to get in the box. And he has the capacity to finish the actions.
You always say that you're open to strengthening the squad. You conceded three goals in the past two games. Is a defender something that you'd actually actively like to sign this summer?
I wouldn't go there just to put an isolated there. We conceded some poor goals the other day, some poor goals today. In the way we competed, especially. But that's a very collective responsibility. So, we need to improve with the players that we have. And we want to improve for sure.
You've always spoken about having new players. Can fans expect there to be more additions, to be new players before the end of the window?
Well, that's what we're trying to do. If we have the right player in the market to make us much better. We are very looking forward to that.
We've seen over the last few seasons just how important William Saliba is to this team. Obviously, he's going to be out for a certain period of time. How do you navigate that for the coming weeks of the season? Because he's such a big part of that plan, isn't he?
Yeah, we have experienced that in the past, unfortunately. And when he's been available, he's hit form. And the stats are incredible. So we know that we lost a massive player. The same with Jurrien. Some of these seven or eight players weren't here today with us.
So we know that the context is very, very particular. And there were so many other positive things. It could have been a very different result, to be fair. And I don't want to lose sight of that. But losing has to create pain. That's inevitable.
The timeline of people coming back and being reintegrated into the team. If they're coming back potentially tomorrow or today, back into training, how realistic is it that they're getting minutes ahead of the start of the season? Are you expecting to see players that can play in the Community Shield or can play in that first game?
Yes, because we have very different groups within the same time that they are coming back. Why? Because some of them, they've done more. Some others, they've done less. Some of them, they almost didn’t participate in the World Cup in terms of minutes. So they are all very different stages.
I want to see as well the way they have looked after themselves, what they said they did and actually what they did and how they look. And I'm sure that will be all positive surprises.
Are you quite confident that you'll have a good number of them back available for when the season proper starts?
Yes, I think so, yeah.
Are you going to have to manage in a different way those opening parts of the season because there are different players at different fitness levels?
Yes, that's something that we've done in the past. Obviously, we have some long-term injuries with people coming back. But today, we have done that with certain players.
Martin only played 30 minutes. We've made an incredible amount of changes. Against Betis, it was the same 45 minutes.
You wouldn't recognise, obviously, the team that played the last season. So this is part of the preparation and a really specific preparation that if we don't see the result right now, make sure that we see it in a week's time when we start to compete for the major trophies.