After leading us to a 1-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park, Mikel Arteta answered a number of questions from the media who wanted to get his thoughts on the win.
The boss was asked about the impact of his subs, an update on Gabriel Martinelli’s injury, why David Raya made his debut and more.
Here’s everything he had to say:
on winning our first game at Everton since 2017:
Very happy, very happy with the performance and the way we played. Six years we haven’t done that. That’s the challenge in front of us and the opportunity as well, and we looked at everything we had to do, and did that on the pitch. I think we dominated the game from start to finish – we created a lot of chances, a lot of dominance in the game, we didn’t give anything away. And to do that here, it’s a big compliment to the players because it’s not really easy to do that.
by good game winning margins:
We work with everyone, every manager should. When you are preparing for the game, you should try to expose the opponent’s weaknesses and hide yours. That was the result of what we tried and did, and then the result came. We found openings in many ways and we were neat enough in the last pass, the last action and the last finish to do it, and thank them too, because they defended the box really, really well . The game might have been very different had Martinelli’s goal been allowed. No and that’s it, but I’m super happy now.
to Martinelli’s injury:
He felt it after the action for the goal run, and he’s usually not one of those players with muscle problems, but he needs to come off, so we’ll see.
in short corner tactics we have during the game:
We prepare every situation in a way that we have to keep for ourselves. We don’t want to give anything away, as you can imagine, to opponents, but we try to practice set-pieces. That’s something big for us too, because we created a lot, we’re in the last third and we have to do well, because it’s a way to win the game for all the clubs.
as this is the third game in a row that one of our substitutes has scored:
No one is guaranteed a place, I don’t guarantee it. You are here to perform at the highest level and contribute to our best capacity to win games, and that is what we need to do. It’s no different for anyone else and we set our own standards, whatever happens outside, it doesn’t get any bigger than that. That’s the last one we have.
in our management to control the crowd:
I really know this crowd and you can feel it. There are times when they lift you up and the game changes and the momentum shifts and you have to try and stay out of that game because when they get on that rollercoaster they’re a really good team. It’s very difficult to get out of that and I think we’ve done that now.
why he chose to start Raya in this game:
The same reasoning that Fabio played here or that Eddie took Gabriel Jesus first. I don’t have a single question why Gabriel didn’t start – he won a lot of trophies including me in that dressing room but they didn’t. [ask why]. It’s something that history has done like this but I can’t have two players in this position and not play them. David has many qualities like Aaron and Karl, but we have to use them and like this.
I’m a really young manager, only three and a half years on the job and I have few regrets. It’s two times, that after 60 minutes and 85 minutes in two games this season I could have changed the goalkeeper at that moment, and I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to do it, but I was able to take a winger or a striker and put a central defender in the back to make a back five and keep that result. We drew those games and I wasn’t very happy.
Someone does it, and it’s weird and you ask why, but tell me why not? If you have all the qualities of another goalkeeper to do something, or if something happened and you want to change the momentum, do it. One regret that I have and now I feel is to have everyone in the team that they have to play, regardless of the competition – this is my message.
of Raya’s sweeper-keeper qualities:
We adapt to the qualities that our players have and try to enable them to play to their strengths. There are games to do certain things and games to do other things which in my opinion were very important against Everton and we made a decision to try and benefit the team – that’s all.
how he wanted Aaron to react to the fall:
Same with Jesus, same with Tomiyasu – exactly the same. We play with 11 players, we don’t play 10+1 or 10 or nine, it’s exactly the same.
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