\n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on staying grounded: <\/strong> on Viktor Gyokeres\u2019 form: <\/strong> on if Gyokeres had any self-doubt: <\/strong> on if there\u2019s a psychological advantage over Chelsea: <\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on if March will define our season:<\/strong> on if we are an exciting team:<\/strong> on if he expects a different approach from Chelsea compared to our Carabao Cup game:<\/strong> on if finishing second the last three years is a motivation:<\/strong> on if his team ever show signs of nerves:<\/strong> on if he has confidence because of our recent record against Chelsea:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on Viktor\u2019s stats this season:<\/strong> on how he\u2019s understanding Eze better:<\/strong> on understanding Eze emotionally:<\/strong> on Piero Hincapie’s form:<\/strong> on if his deal will become permanent:<\/strong> on the potential Champions League route:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n on how hard it is to win a quadruple:<\/strong> on if he thinks about winning the quadruple:<\/strong> on if he would play Eze on the left to bring in Odegaard:<\/strong> on a partnership between Hincapie and Eze down the left:<\/strong> on Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice’s praise of him:<\/strong> \n Read more<\/span> <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mikel Arteta has been speaking to the press ahead of our latest London derby as we take on Chelsea at Emirates Stadium. After three away Premier League games in a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Arteta on Havertz, Dowman and Gyokeres <\/span>
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It\u2019s something that I need. I mean, you are like this every single day, I\u2019m happy and sad, you cannot be like this, you cannot give your best with that. Obviously, you have to be very critical with yourself, very analytical with what we do and try to be always as good as we possibly can.<\/p>\n
Well, I think one thing leads to another. When you score the first one, or the performance is good, you have more time with your teammates, you understand the games, the opponents, the league better, everything helps. We know his qualities, he\u2019s undoubtedly an incredible striker. We need to feed into his quality, we need to understand him better, he needs to understand the team and the league better, and I think we are on the right trajectory.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know, that\u2019s a question for him. Obviously I know the demands that he\u2019s put on himself, the expectations that he has to help the team. I\u2019m confident because I ask, a lot of times, our defenders, when they have to train against our players, how do you feel about that? And that\u2019s a really good way to understand the quality of a player or how it is to defend them.<\/p>\n
No, I think what it is, is about the preparation, and the preparation gives you confidence and the right emotional state to get to the game with the belief and the conviction that you\u2019re going to win it, and after that, you have to earn the right to do it.<\/p>\n From the vault: Six fine home wins against Chelsea <\/span>
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I don\u2019t think March will (define it), but it will be very important with what is going to happen in April and May, that\u2019s for sure. There are competitions in knockout stages, and you are in or you are out.<\/p>\n
Well I think we\u2019ve scored more goals in a single season (2023\/24) than in the history of Arsenal Football Club. So you can put any name or adjective that you want, it’s up to you.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t know – I mean, they\u2019ve done different things, they can change throughout the game. They have the players and they have a manager who is very comfortable doing that – so we\u2019re prepared, we\u2019re going to be prepared for the possible scenarios that we can face throughout the game, and try to do better than them.<\/p>\n
When you play like this, you only want to be first, that\u2019s it. So imagine how the rest of the teams are. That\u2019s the aim – always get better, always try to excel the possibilities of the team, whether that be individually or collectively. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do, get to the last stage of the competitions in April and May and see what we\u2019re able to do.<\/p>\n
I want to see signs of confidence, enthusiasm, and a lot of will to win (against) what is in front of us, and that\u2019s what I see every single day from the team.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t change the preparation. We know the importance of the game, and we know the team we\u2019re going to have in front of us. We just have to prepare in the best way to have the right to win it. As I always say, there\u2019s nothing else you can do. What we did two weeks or two years ago is irrelevant. Every game and context is different, because the players might change, the mood of the teams can be in a different state, or what is at stake is different, and we\u2019re prepared.<\/p>\n Quiz: Played for both Arsenal and Chelsea in PL <\/span>
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I want the stats to show that with him we are the better team and we have achieved what we want. He can be a huge contributor to our success, scoring goals and doing many of the things that he does really well throughout the games.<\/p>\n
You see how players react in relation to certain decisions that you take. When you have better games, when you have certain difficulties throughout the games. His role has been modified a few times throughout the season, his reaction has always been top – that\u2019s what we need, because he\u2019s been exceptional in the manner that he\u2019s behaving every single day. What we need is for those manners to be transformed into huge performances that decide who matches, that\u2019s the reason why we bought him.<\/p>\n
Yes, I think so, and tactically as well. To understand him, you have to understand how he connects with other players. One of the best connections that we can build in and around, in the spaces that he\u2019s more comfortable to use, there are certain behaviours that he\u2019s changed dramatically into really positive things. In the end, you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to see them in a week, two weeks, or a month. But they\u2019re coming.<\/p>\n
I fully agree. Again, a bit more time with the team. A sequence of games where, probably, physically, he’s in a much better place. He’s been extremely dominant in all the defensive actions. He understands what we want in the attacking part as well much better, all the set-pieces, all the aspects that are relative to the game model that we have. He’s very much liked amongst the players, you can see that the way they interact and react with him. I’m very pleased that he’s showing that level.<\/p>\n
I would say so. Let’s go through the season. We have already discussed the possible outcomes that we have after that period. But so far, we are very, very happy with him.<\/p>\n
We are really excited. Going on four fronts and the way the team is consistently performing gives us a lot of hope and positive thoughts about what is coming. But we can only focus on the present, that’s where we’re going to put our energy and that’s on Sunday.<\/p>\n Bayer Leverkusen drawn in Champions League last 16 <\/span>
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Has it been done? That’s how difficult it is. Let\u2019s go game by game, let’s try to earn the right to continue to be there until the last stage of every competition, and then we’ll see what happens.<\/p>\n
Not really, not so much on the outcome. I focus a lot on what we have to do to continue in the manner and the trajectory that we are as a team, and from there, obviously, try to improve it.<\/p>\n
There is a possibility to do that, for sure. I think we only did it once, and it was for a short period of time because Martin had a shoulder injury. As well, obviously, because we had players out, now in midfield. Martin was out, Mikel (Merino) was out, Kai (Havertz) was out as well. Ethan (Nwaneri) was sent on loan so we had less options and that’s the reason as well that he’s been playing more regularly now.<\/p>\n
It’s a combination that we can do. When we talk about connection, that’s a connection that I think will work really well, especially against a certain type of opponent. So that’s another option that we have.<\/p>\n
Well, I always said that the difficulty of being so long at a football club is probably in that relationship, that belief that you need to have from the players. Because at the end, when you look at them and you’re talking or you’re proposing to do something, you need to inspire them and they need to be on board immediately. I’m very pleased that the boys are feeling that way, that they want to continue to work with us and with all the coaches and the staff. That means that they enjoy what they do.<\/p>\n The stats behind Bukayo Saka’s rise <\/span>
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