13/12/2024
Arteta on Everton: "The human quality and then how deep the feeling is towards the club. The club has been through very different phases in its history, but I love the way they get all together and they face the storms."
Arteta on Everton having a longer rest: "That’s the context. We are so used to playing every three days. The boys are really fired up and looking forward and understanding we’ll have to be really good to beat them.
Arteta on Merino-Rice-Odegaard midfield: "There’ve been a lot of new units recently. I think they can play well together. They will play again together for sure in the near future.
"Three very intelligent football brains. They like to play for others. You have players who can hold the ball in tight spaces and can play for others. Martin is exceptional in his timing and the high press."
Arteta on Lewis-Skelly: "You always take a chance. It doesn’t matter the experience or age. He was surrounded by very experienced players. We believed he could help the team to win the game and he certainly did that."
Arteta on if Saka is world class: "I don’t like putting labels on players. He’s excellent at what he does. Now we need to go to the next step and win things collectively."
Arteta on the need for threat from the left side: "We certainly have that. It’s never gonna be the same because they have different qualities. We need to understand that we have different threats on all sides. If not we wouldn’t have scored the goals we did in the last few years."
Arteta on injuries for the left hand side: "That’s something where we’ve had a lot of instability in recent years. Finding that stability and putting players who have that chemistry is very important."
Arteta on how he challenges Saka: "There’s still everything to do and everything to win. That’s the motivation, to keep pushing the football club to a higher level. If I have to motivate him that’s a problem."
Arteta on if Martinelli can play as a nine: "He’s played a few times. I think Gabi
