Mikel Arteta Arsenal
How have you found playing in the Europa League?
Any time you get to step out onto the field is a real treat. You work really hard in the week, and to get opportunities to play and to show how much I’ve grown as a player and a goalkeeper is really nice. Obviously, playing for a club of this size is an honour, and I don’t take that for granted. It’s been really, really great.
If someone had said to you this time last year you’d be playing European matches for Arsenal, would you have believed them?
My ego might have said yes, but I don’t think I saw the pathway forward. As an American player and someone with my history, I don’t think I thought it would be possible, so to play meaningful minutes for a club like Arsenal is really special. I believed I could play at this level, but I just didn’t know that the pathway was possible. It puts things into perspective every time you step out on the field.
How did you end up supporting Arsenal?
I mean, it’s not really the best story ever about supporting Arsenal. It was after the World Cup in 2010 I bought my first game of FIFA, and when it says – ‘What club do you want to support or select?’ – obviously ‘A’ came up first, and Arsenal was there! But also, I made that connection because my sisters both played for a local club team that was called The Arsenal, and so I just made that connection right there and kind of stuck with it. Obviously, through the early 2010s, there were some really great times to be an Arsenal fan, and I would get up nice and early, depending on when the kick-off was. The 12.30pm kick-off here was 7.30am [in the US], so anytime Arsenal were playing, I was doing my best to watch. As I got a bit older, I got into the pub culture in New York City, and I have been around the fans for those types of atmospheres as well.
Does that make it easier to connect with fans? In the last game they were chanting ‘USA’ when you were making saves.
That feels nice, yeah. I guess it’s easier, but it’s also more difficult because you want them to love you so much because you were one. You understand the feeling of what it’s like to be a fan. I found the same with the national team – I was a fan with the US national team before I was a player. Because of that experience, I knew that for me coming here and being myself was my best way forward. I’m a really relatable person, with a really relatable story to a lot of people in this life. Luckily my dreams came true, and I get to represent this club every single day.
Was walking out at the Emirates with your story as a fan a big moment for you?
100%. Actually, my dad got to come over from America for that game. That’s how I play. I wear my heart on my sleeve. If I mess up, I tell you, and if I do well – I don’t usually like to say it – but I like to celebrate big moments. I think that shows that I want to do what’s best for the team. Whether I’m on the pitch in the starting XI or on the side. I don’t know if the cameras got me celebrating after Leeds missed a penalty over the weekend, but that comes from a lot of homework that Aaron and me do every week. It was a really good feeling to feel like I’d impacted the way the game turned out even though I wasn’t on the pitch. I want what’s best for this team. Whether I play well or badly, as long as there’s three points on the board, that’s what matters to me.
How did you impact the penalty against Leeds?
We (me and Aaron) sit there and look at penalties all week, and we talk through them together. At the end of the day, it’s Aaron’s decision, and he’s the one on the pitch. But there’s conversations that go on behind the scenes about what we might think could happen and what happened happened.
Do you think not playing in the Premier League will impact your chances with the USA?
Listen, I’m just focused on what I can control, and what I have before me is opportunities to play in Europe. For me playing to the best of my abilities and letting my body of work over the past 18 months speak for itself. I’ve played 20 games in the national team over the past few years, and I think I’m in a good position to play at the World Cup. At the end of the day, though, like with Arsenal, if Greg decides Zack (Steffen) is the way forward or Ethan (Horvath) or Sean (Johnson), and he feels that’s the best way to get results, I stand behind the decisions that he makes, and I support him as a manager, and I’ll play to the best of my abilities to try and win. Obviously, I want to play, and I feel I’ve done enough to prove I can play at that level, but you can only control so much, and I feel I’ve done what I can.
Does Greg (Berhalter) have any reservations over your lack of playing time?
I don’t think so. When I was playing week in week out at the MLS, it didn’t impact my playing time. I was benched for one game in World Cup qualifying, and the message was that playing week-in-week-out in the MLS wasn’t enough, so I’m out here chasing whatever more is. I’m training at a really high level, challenging, and playing under a really good coach who believes in me, and that feels really nice. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and like I say, I’m an open book for you guys, so I’m really going for it.
How much do you want to play at the World Cup against England?
It would be great. Obviously, coming over here and being American, we’ve had some banter with the English guys, so I’m really looking forward to it. I also think it helped allow me to really settle into the English way of life in some ways. Understanding the people, and people understanding me a little bit. Playing at a World Cup is just such a special thing, and it’s the pinnacle of your career. So to share that with a country that I’m new to and getting accustomed to would be really special.
Is Arteta asking the same from you as he does from Aaron when it comes to playing with your feet?
The expectation is pretty clear for the model that we want to play, and that’s something that took a learning curve when I first got here. But I think I’ve done better. I think what’s been the M.O. of my whole career is that I have a tremendous capacity to learn. I’m not the same goalkeeper as six months ago, 12 months ago, or 18 months ago. I’m always learning, I’m always growing, and I’m trying to adapt to the demands of the modern game like most people my age, for whom things started changing for goalkeepers when we were around 22, 23 or 24. You’ve got to adapt, and you’ve got to be able to learn new tricks. I don’t think I’d be here if I wasn’t able to learn.
Were you given assurances over playing time when you came?
Absolutely not, no. There’s no guarantees in this game. It’s all about how you train, and how you gain the trust of your manager and those around you. You get the opportunities to play how you do in those minutes. I wasn’t given any specific clarities on my role, just that if you show up, you come in, and you work hard, then anything can happen. So for me, it was a risk to go from being a shoe-in starter to a place where I wasn’t guaranteed to be a regular starter, but it felt like a necessary risk that I had to take. I always want to challenge myself at the highest level possible, and I feel like I’m here now.
Has seeing the England regulars on a weekly basis changed your confidence for the World Cup?
No, I’d say it’s about the same. We have a belief in ourselves as a national team. Obviously, seeing these players, you see how gifted they are, but you can tell that from the TV. England has one of the most talented pools in the world, not just their region, so that was always going to be a challenging game for us. I think our group, in general, is the lowest FIFA-ranked group on average, so it’s a tough group, and every game is tough. Obviously, we want to talk about England vs the US, but before that, we have a game each, and in the World Cup, as we all know, anything is possible. If you look too far into the future, you’re gonna find yourself in trouble.
What kind of conversations are you having with Bukayo or Ben about it?
Most of my banter comes with Aaron about it. Most of it was around the time of that international window in September, but when we came back from that, Mikel did a good job of snapping us back into the fact that we had a pretty intense window ahead of us, so we kind of left that international break and all international talk behind us. We joked about it a bit around then, but then we realised we have a lot to go through between then and now.
How do those conversations go?
It’s just regular banter like you’d have with anybody. You talk about stuff like the revolutionary war and just stuff like that, joking around. That’s more just me joking about it.
What do they say back?
Yeah, the same thing. They laugh and just joke that they’re gonna smash us, so it’s all good.
What do you know about this PSV squad?
Yeah, I know a lot about them. There obviously a very high-powered squad, and have scored a lot of goals. They’re always challenging for the title in their domestic league, and they’ve done well so far in the Europa League. We’re the top two teams in the group, and we know that they have a lot of individual quality. A couple of dangerous players up top, their left winger (Cody Gakpo) has, I think 10 goals and 13 assists, and you don’t just turn your nose away from that. It’s stuff you have to consider. It’s going to be a very physical game from a very good team, and we expect that, but we want to take all three points.
How did it feel to hear Mikel Arteta describe your performance in Norway as phenomenal, and how has it been working with you?
It felt good, but it’s what one game. For me, it’s about how can I take that to the next level. My goal is to take this to the highest level possible. Good performances are good, you tick the box, and then you keep going. Working under him has been fantastic. He’s somebody that challenges me. He figured out what makes me tick early on, I think because I’m super competitive. Sometimes the way we train can come with a bit of failure as a goalkeeper because you’re asked to take more risks than I have done traditionally in the past. It was challenging for me to adapt to that, but he always picked me up and told me to keep my head up even if I was frustrated with something don’t show it because in football and in life, there’s loads of failures, but it’s really about how you react to them and how you pick yourself back up. He helped me ground myself into the team and then start to show my personality and get to know the guys, and now I feel like someone the guys can trust on the field and off it.
