Arteta previews the first match of 2025 against Brentford

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta previews the first match of 2025 against Brentford  27/12/2024  Emirates Stadium, London, UK

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00:00You have more games than ever this month, from the next round of Champions League, Carabao

00:06Cup games. I just wonder how much do you feel your team has grown from this time last year

00:11and how prepared are they for some of the games coming up?

00:14Well, we're going to have to prove it. What we've proven already this season, and I'm

00:19sure of that, if that would have happened last season, playing the amount of games that

00:23we played with 10 men, all the injuries that we had in the squad, for sure we were in the

00:27position that we are today in all competitions. So the team has made another step. The team

00:32is evolving and is adapting to new circumstances. And now we have another one, which is more

00:37games with less players. So let's face it.

00:40With Raheem Sterling coming back sooner than you expected, you thought how hungry is he

00:48with the opportunity to play on the rubber?

00:50Yeah, he's got it. Because he had a good game here against Palav, he could have scored two

00:54goals, made an assist, and at the end he got injured after the training session. So

01:00yeah, that was his opportunity because naturally he would have played in that position. But

01:05now in rush I think he will be back quite soon.

01:08Liverpool obviously won again last night. They could increase their lead to nine points.

01:14How hard do you think they're going to be to catch? Or how difficult is it going to

01:18be for Arsenal to catch Liverpool?

01:19I don't know. That doesn't depend on us. We have to continue to be like a hammer. Be

01:25there every day, every day, every day. If somebody wins all the matches, congratulate

01:30them and let's go to the next season. But if they don't, which in the history hasn't

01:35happened, we will be there.

01:37What's the New Year's resolution for this team? Is it not to have any wobbles going

01:42forward, to be more decisive in certain periods?

01:48Keep everybody fit. That's it.

01:54I wonder if I could ask you about one player in particular, Leandro Trosser, who was really

01:58good tonight. Sometimes it feels like he's in and he's out of the team. Maybe you can

02:04see that a little bit in his body language, I don't know. But basically these next few

02:08weeks is a big opening for him. Just what does he bring to your team?

02:13Really good. They all want to play, always want to play. And Leo, I think he had in the

02:19last 12 months a lot more consistency. He deserves that. Obviously he's had a lot of

02:24competition in his position, so that's it. Raise the level, he plays at that level, he

02:28will play like anybody else. But he has the capacity to do something special in the final

02:34set.

02:35He does score important goals, he's got a knack for coming up in those moments. But

02:40I guess also he wants to, as you say, to star in the game and be a menace for 90.

02:45Yeah, well he's played with us, he's played as a left winger, he's played as a left attacking

02:49midfielder, he's played as a nine. He's a player that I value a lot, that we value a

02:53lot because he's very versatile, very competitive and he's always a massive goal threat for

02:58the team. So really happy with him.

03:00Is his attitude good? Is he always good?

03:03Yeah, Leo naturally is a little bit of a moaner. But I like that because he's very competitive,

03:09you have training sessions, always busy with the referee's decision because he wants to

03:14win and that's what I love. He wants to always be the best and when he's not there, he's

03:19not happy. But that's what pushes him, that's why he comes on the pitch, he can impact because

03:23he's got that drive, that hunger. I'm going to show you and I love that about him.

03:28Miguel, you've got a couple of days between now and the next game against Brentford away.

03:33How will you prepare your team? Will you give them a couple of days off?

03:38Tomorrow training session, the next day recovery for them and a full focus on Brentford. Now

03:44is the moment to go, go. Our minds have to be in what we have to do and recover because

03:49we have not now only but in the next three, four weeks so many games in different competitions

03:54and we need to be right at that.

03:56What kind of challenge do you think Brentford will pose? How different will it be to this game?

04:01Very tough I think. A really, really good team. You see their record, they have a home

04:06until last week. It's remarkable. They evolve and adapt it as well, the qualities in the

04:13team because of the players that they have right now. So very impressed.

04:18Do you think you'll have to rotate against Brentford or ideally start this same team

04:27again?

04:28I don't know. I will watch the game back and then I will watch the training session that

04:33we always do and feel it and have a feeling what is the best team to start and what is

04:39the best team to finish the game in relation to what the opposition does as well and an

04:44individual moment of each player.

04:46Wish you all a happy new year guys. Thank you.

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