“I didn’t enjoy because I didn’t sleep much” : Mikel Arteta admits to have had sleepless nights prior to Arsenal’s narrow victory over Tottenham Hotspur
Club football is finally back after the two-week international break, as matchday four of the Premier League just concluded, with the North London Derby being the highlight of the weekend.
The Gunners were narrowly able to beat Spurs 1-0 in a match where key players were missing. Declan Rice was exempted to play after receiving a suspension while Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafiori were all out after suffering injury blows during and before the international break. Kieran Tierny and Takehiro Tomiyasu were also ruled out.
Although Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes’ second-half header was enough to seal the victory, it was anything but a pretty matchup. The first-half in itself saw seven yellow cards, as things got heated up between players of the two teams. Ange Postecoglou’s team was the unlucky side, as they failed to convert the many chances they had made in the 18-yard box.
What Mikel Arteta had to say about the win over their rivals
Even before the match started, the Spainard received issues due to the many injuries occurring in the span of 2-3 weeks in the squad, especially of their captain Martin Odegaard. The Norwegian suffered an ankle injury during the international break and will also be missing Sunday’s mega-clash against Premier League champions Manchester City. The Spainard admitted that he lost sleep preparing days before the derby.
“I didn’t enjoy [the preparation] because I didn’t sleep much, I looked ahead to Spurs for four or five days and I had a super clear plan how to do it. I prepared all the meetings, the training sessions and everything. Then I get the news that we’ve lost a player, and then another player and then another player, and I had to completely change it and adapt the plan to the players that we had available. So, it was a great challenge,” the Spaniard said in the post-match press conference.
“The second we started to get that news, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play that game. It’s a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way. It’s a tough week coming and instead of finding any excuses we did the opposite. We faced the challenge, played with courage and acknowledged the qualities we had to win the game,” the 42-year-old added.
Apart from lauding the team’s resilience and performance, the Gunners manager separately acknowledged the efforts put in by his Brazilian defender, and revealed how far he has come about as a person and a player.
“The way he has evolved first as a person and then in his role in the club and the team has been phenomenal. It has been great to watch. This is why we are here, this is one of my passions to give players the environment, the support and coaching to grow, to prepare them for life and to get to levels they probably didn’t think [they could reach] before. Gabriel is one of the best examples of that. Why? He loves what he does, he applies himself extremely well and he wants it. When that happens, good things happen to these kinds of people,” said Arteta.
The Gunners currently sit second on the table, just two points behind Pep Guardiola’s side, who have remained unbeaten so far. Their next challenge lies in the UEFA Champions League against current Europa League winners Atalanta this Friday, just two days before they have to travel away to the Etihad stadium and face their biggest competition in the Premier League.
