Here is every word Mikel Arteta said after Arsenal’s pre-match press conference ahead of clash with Brentford
14:10, 11 Feb 2026Updated 14:26, 11 Feb 2026
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference ahead of Premier League clash with Brentford
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference ahead of Premier League clash with Brentford(Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. Arsenal will be responding to their title rivals, Manchester City, who host Fulham on Wednesday evening.
Thomas Frank was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur in the hours leading up to the press conference, and Arteta gave his reaction to the result.
He also gave the latest on team news, including the three big concerns: Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard.
Here is every word the Arsenal manager had to say during the press conference...
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There's lots going on today, but let's start with your team. Let's start with some team news, shall we?
There's a few injuries, not as many as there's been previously, but can you give us an update on Martin, on Bukayo, Max and also Leo came off late.
Max is still not available, the rest will see about them at the medical meeting.
How's Max doing in his recovery?
He's doing very well. I think he will be with us in a week or so and then he just needs to pick up the rhythm and be available for us.
I saw Merino posted a picture across his socials at his operation. How did it go? Is there any timeline at all about when we could see him?
Could we see him before the end of the season?
I think the doctors were really happy with the way it went. It's obviously a long process. You're talking about bone healing, so you need to be patient, you respect the timings.
I'm sure Mikel is going to do everything that he possibly can to speed up that recovery. And the timeframes, we're talking about months, whether it's three or four or five, we don't know.
There was a lot of noise over the weekend about the City-Liverpool game and lots of Arsenal fans were watching it. I think lots of Arsenal fans were a little bit disappointed at the end that City were able to come back. Did you watch it? What did you make of the game?
I understand about it. It's the things that we cannot control. It's completely up to us what we have to do. We have to focus on us, on the present. We know every three days what is coming and just enjoy that.
What were the players' reactions to it? I can imagine they would have watched it as well. Nine points is of course better than six, but what's their reaction been? Have you had to give them a message?
They were really happy when we beat Sunderland because we knew that was going to be very tough. Everybody in their houses watching it. We have discussed the way we have to take this constantly and just put all the energy in what we do. That's it.
Is there a message that obviously there are so many ups and downs, changes throughout the title race and the fact that you're going to be playing twice before when City only played once, so that gap could keep increasing as well.
We remains focused because that's going to happen from now until the end of the season and it has happened in the last six months. For us it's something normal, natural and I'm looking forward to it.
There was big news this morning about fellow manager Thomas Frank losing his job. I just wanted to first of all get your reaction to the news.
Well, always very sad news when you have a colleague that doesn't continue doing his job because Thomas is an excellent coach, he's an extraordinary man as well and he's proven that in the league. We know where we are. We know that our responsibility is beyond just performance.
That sometimes result dictates what happens with us. We wish him all the very best for whatever he decides to do next.
Is the Premier League becoming more impatient these days?
I don't know. I don't think you can just take every example in the same possible way. I think in the context of every club it is very different but it's always a possibility.
Obviously people are going to compare Arsenal and Tottenham, they're rivals, playing against each other next weekend. When you look at the two clubs, and since you've joined Arsenal, Tottenham have had eight different managers in the dugout in that time. Is there an argument of what you're doing that stability, time, patience, first of all the success that can bring and second of all, what's been the key to maintaining that stability not just from the play stuff but it's also throughout the whole club as well?
I think every era is different at every club and we have in this Premier League two of the most iconic managers with Arsene and Sir Alex as well for so many years. That has changed a lot from both clubs. I don't know.
It depends on many factors. In my opinion the first one is if you have the players right behind you and they enjoy what they do and they believe in what you do, it's a big thing. Then you have to win a lot of games because at the end, if you don't do that, you're not going to continue in the job, and that's the reality of our job.
Just thinking about the managers who have been sacked already this year, different phases of their respective projects at their respective clubs, how do you feel that you have been given the time here at Arsenal and there seems to be that fit between you and the club and the project. It's coming along nicely I'd say.
Creating that chemistry with everybody in and around the club and most importantly win a lot of games. At the end the percentage of wins that you win has to be really high if you want to continue in the job. Then you can go through a spell that you don't win games and that's the moment that the ownership, or the sporting director, whoever it is has to make a decision and that varies and changes from club to club.
How has it made you feel though in terms of the fact that you have been given that time to carry out your project here?
Very happy obviously, that's what we all wanted from the beginning and between all of us we have been able to sustain and bring that stability, performance, joy and progression to the club and hopefully this season we're going to even be better.
Again, thinking about the change at Spurs, how has that impacted you for the North London derby?
Because you've done all your work this season on taking on a team managed by one man. Right now you don't know who that man will be, you'll know before the day but it will be completely different. How much as a manager do you then have to be flexible?
Well I think it's happened a lot of times already this season for us. At the end, you learn the lesson not only with the change of manager but with what you expect from a manager to do against you as well, because they change it a lot this season. So focus more on us and make sure that what we want to achieve, the way we want to play, the things that we want to happen in the game, that happen many times, in relation or not in relation to what they will do tactically.
Because then the set-up is one thing, the player profile is another thing and the momentum of the game and context is something else. And we have to be able to adapt and recognise that and understand those rules to do what we have to do.
More than a quarter of the teams in the Premier League now have changed the manager this season overall. We've got specific windows when players can move. Should we have, similar thing for managers, a window?
I don't want to get into that territory. I don't know, I think at the end people have to have the freedom as well to decide what is the best way to do that. It's always been like that so I don't know if changing it will help or make it better. I have no clue.
A couple of quick ones to finish with. London derbies in general, you've got a fantastic record. Brentford haven't.
Does form really go out the window in a London derby or is it just another game of football?
I don't know, we know that the run that they are in and how strong they've been at home as well. The last few results that they had, the work that the coaching staff are doing. Yeah, amazing. Big credit to them because they are a top side.
Finally, the weather has been rubbish in the last few months, as you will notice. I'm not a meteorological man, rubbish will do. It's really wet and what have you.
Pictures aren't great.
Last time in December it was really hot, you were complaining it was too hot as well.
I have a very small window of what I like.
What is the right weather then? 20 degrees?
Yeah, there abouts. Pitches have been poor because a lot of games, I mean you are in every competition. The Arsenal women play on the pitch at the Emirates as well.
Yeah.
Brentford play a lot on their pitch. In terms of that, how, firstly, is tomorrow an advantage not playing on the Emirates pitch for once and secondly, in general, are pitches becoming more difficult to play on this time of year?
Yeah, there are many factors to that. Obviously, the amount of games that we are playing on that pitch puts a lot of stress on it. The weather conditions and the time of the year that it is right now.
So, we know how important that is. So, we are taking responsibility on that and making everything that we possibly can to improve it as quick as possible.
I enjoyed the interview that you did with the amateur coach Alex Lodge recently.
I enjoyed it too.
In that conversation, you talked about the reflections that you had as a coach and one of them being how you recognised at the start of your time that you'd overcoached some players tactically is what was mentioned. I'm curious what it was that you identified that made you realise at the moment. How did you realise that you were tactically going too far maybe at times?
I don't know if I said that. I said probably that I put maybe more focus on the tactical and technical aspect than the other aspects and that shifted. At the end, you have to recognise what a team needs first of all.
To create a clear identity and way of playing, you have to see it in a certain way. You want to change the culture. You're going to invest a lot and put a lot of effort into that.
Now, it's shifted because I think it's what a team needs as well. The level of understanding and what they have to do is very, very good. So, we can focus on areas that we can develop that can give us a lot of value.
Is it also the case that when you first join a club, you inherit a squad? Over those years, gradually, you build that squad with players that are tailored to the specific roles that you'd like. Does that mean you have to tactically focus on the game less when you bring in players that you're very specifically focused on?
Yes, and probably some of the things that I learned as well is that you can have an idea. You can do certain things, but at the end, the players' qualities are the most important thing. As a player, it's something that is not completely comfortable.
It's not natural and it won't flow. It might work for a few actions, for a few moments, but in the medium and long term, it doesn't. That's probably the most important thing.
Respect the nature of the player and try to accommodate, if you can, in the qualities that they have.
You've spoken before about blocks of games and being able to prepare in that way. I think it's easy to do that maybe at the start of the season when you have the international breaks and that natural kind of blocks. When you come into this stage of the season where there isn't a break since November until March, are you still able to do that? How do you go about navigating that?
Yes, we have done it in different ways. The Christmas period or afterwards, when we have four-hour games, for example, and four different competitions. Now we are jumping from competition to competition every week as well. It freshens it up.
We try to do that to see what we have to do in very short periods of time. The objective is to be very present in what we have to do now and what is going to make the difference now in relation to what we want to achieve.
With Martin, you said he's not available. Is there a time frame?
I didn't say that.
You didn't say that? I said Max.
Oh, Max.
My pronunciation is terrible. From Odegaard to Max.
Martin Zubimendi is having the best goalscoring season of his career. Have you been surprised with how much he's been able to contribute?
Merino. Credit to Merino. Merino is showing in the celebration, arriving in the box and everything. [Laughs]
He's a player that the first time I spoke to him, he said that he had the feeling always that he was a bit constrained to go forward in the position that he's playing. We try to give him the licence in the right moments against the right opponents as well to attack those spaces and he's been incredible.
How long after working with him in training and seeing him up close did you know he had the ability to reach the levels we've seen this season?
To be fair, it's been more in games than in training. Because in training as well, with the little time that we have, we focus in other areas. But he has this natural ability to do that. So it's not a big credit to what he's done.
Obviously, since the turn of the year, it feels like it's starting to click for Viktor Gyokeres. He's starting to have the impact that people were hoping he would have. As his coach, you work with him every day, you know him.
What's changed in your opinion? Can you give us some insight into what you think has led to this click happening now?
Not much. I mean, his work ethic remains the same. I think probably the energy, the confidence when you start to score an assist.
And when you score an assist, you probably believe that it's going to happen more often. And the probability of that happening then increases. And that's not the only thing as well.
I think physically as well, after the injury. Because when he got injured, probably he had his best game, or the best two or three games before that period. When he got himself again fresh and available and training, and a sequence of good matches there, I think everything lifted and now it's clicking.
As a coach, when a player is maybe suffering from a lack of confidence, generally speaking, what are some of the things that you try and do to help build that back up? Because obviously, it needs to happen on the pitch, but you can do something, can't you, from inside?
Remind them how good they are and what they bring to the team. And if they are not bringing certain passes, just remind them. And they don't lose sight of all the aspects that are very important on the team, that he's contributing for the team's success and winning.
So it's not only with that. I think a big part of our job is to remind people constantly the important things and the relevant things and the reason why they are with us.
I appreciate earlier you said that obviously if you don't win a lot of games, you're basically vulnerable as a manager. Is eight months enough time to be able to get your vision across in terms of what you want to achieve? Is it longer?
I don't know, because you have to go into those discussions and why they agreed and how they saw the club or the evolution of the squad or the performances that are expected. I don't know. I can just talk about Frank, what I know as a coach because I faced him many times and how he prefers his teams and what he did at Brentford as well.
Or the way they looked in pre-season when we played, they were really impressive. But at the end as well, this league is so competitive. We are all vulnerable because anybody can beat you on the day, you know that. And that's really tough to manage.
So there isn't a magic number of transfer windows to be able to serve?
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In my view, I don't have it. For sure, I have no clue what that number is.
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