#PLStories- Mikel Arteta on Arsenal January transfers, Hein’s mistake and Vieira’s form #ARSENALFC
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What’s your view of the game?
The view is that the result doesn’t reflect what happened on the pitch. I think it’s clear. But there are two things in the pitch which are the boxes where they were much more efficient than us. In moments where we clearly on top of the game and we had the chances to get away with the game, we conceded the goal and that change the game.
Does this represent a big disappointment because it’s a cup competition even with so many games at the minute?
Losing does, but the way the boys tried tonight and played with the amount changes that we had to make because of the congestion, and we had to protect the players and give them chances, I’m really happy with that. But obviously we wanted to continue on the competition and unfortunately we’re out.
Why did you pick Karl Hein over Matt Turner and what did you make of the error?
I think he deserves the chance. He’s the first goalie of the national team and at his age that’s not usual. He totally deserved his chance. If I have to play him tomorrow again I would. You get experience when you play football matches and if not you never get the experience, but Karl already has that. Errors are part of football.
Does that show where you need to strengthen in January?
That’s the squad that we have and we have to utilise in the best possible way and today we came short, especially because we didn’t do what we have to do in both boxes to win a football match. We paid that price
To maintain the challenge does that show that your depth isn’t quite as strong?
We know where we are we know at the moment. We know as well that we have certain injuries, and the squad is very, very short. We have tried to manage that in the best possible situation. It’s the same when we win a football match so no excuses.
Have you said anything to Karl in the dressing or is it a case of letting him deal with it himself?
No, everybody has been supporting him, everybody was supporting him straight after. We all make mistakes, me the first one, the players all the time and it’s part of the game. He needs to carry on. When you make an error it’s about how you react, not about the error. This is going to happen in his career and it happened today unfortunately.
Throughout the season you’ve spoken a lot about units, like Zinchenko, Martinelli and Xhaka. How do you go about building continuity (with those units) before a game – is it on the grass or individual meetings?
It’s all kinds of things. Obviously being in a relationship on the pitch, chemistry and understanding is something really important and every training session that we do is related to that.
Because there’s a lot of fluidity with your team, are there players who fit into multiple units?
Yeah, there are players who can play in different roles and accommodate different spaces and something that I think is very positive.
Why do you think Fabio Vieira has struggled to build on his bright start?
I think in front of goal he’s been unlucky because in the past two games he could have scored a few goals. But every player needs time to adapt obviously. When he played against Brentford away from home and he’s surrounded with players he’s more familiar with it’s a bit easier. We’ve asked him to play lots of different positions as well because of the needs that we have in the squad. But, I’m not worried at all.
Do you feel like he’s really settled in now?
Well he missed a big part because he was injured for two and a half months and he missed the whole preseason and didn’t have any preseason. I think that period in the World Cup is going to make him very good.
Have Jesus and Martinelli been helping Gabriel get over missing out on the Brazil squad?
I think the whole team has been very supportive with him. Gabi had that option in his mind that it wasn’t easy to get selected with the squad that they have. He was obviously hoping for it but he accepted that decision in a really good way.
When you say the squad is short, do you need to add to it in January?
It’s the same squad as when we win. I said from day one that we have a short squad because at the end we left some players. It’s what we have. If everyone’s available and no one is injured we are OK, but the moment there is, we know what it is. It’s nothing new. I think I said it the first day after the transfer window.
You can change that in January can’t you?
That’s a window that is open and we’ll have to discuss the opportunities that we have, the capacity that we have for any changes and be on the market for opportunities because we don’t know what’s going to happen the last game before the World Cup. So it’s a lot of options that are open.
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