Every Word from Mikel Arteta’s Pre-Coventry Presser

Mikel Arteta has spoken to the media ahead of our Premier League opener against Coventry City at Emirates Stadium.

Our title campaign kicks off the 2026/27 season at 8pm (UK time), but speaking at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, Mikel gave a squad update, assessed our newly promoted opponents, and more.

Read every word below:

on how it feels to go into the season as champions:

I feel good, different, hopefully better. I’m more excited than ever, hungrier than ever. I can’t wait to start the Premier League at home in front of our supporters, have a great performance and win the match.

on what it takes to retain the title:

Those teams have an incredible quality, which is to maintain the standards daily at the highest level. It is an opportunity that we have. I have no question that our players have that desire and the ambition to do that. Now it’s something that we have to earn and do daily.

on signing a defender:

We are really active in the market, I think I mentioned that a few days ago. The ambition is to improve the squad. We have a really specific issue in the backline, especially with the long-term injury of Wilo [Saliba] and the fact that we miss one more defender; that’s clear. So we are trying to reinforce that area. Whenever we’re ready, we’ll announce something.

on if a signing is close:

I’m always positive, I’m always confident. It’s something that I cannot control. It doesn’t depend just on us, so we are willing to improve that area and we’re going to try our best to achieve that.

on the possibility of players leaving who have been here a long time:

It’s a really, really tough moment, you need to face that reality. But you need to face it with real honesty and transparency because when you are on the other side, that’s exactly what you need. You might not like what you’ve been told, but if it’s truthful, if it’s the reality, if it’s honest and it’s going to help you to make better decisions and have more clarity for the next steps in your career, you have to do that. These are always very difficult conversations, but they need to be done. It’s like when a player doesn’t feel that he belongs or he’s important, he wants to have a different chapter, I think that communication has to exist and it has to be both ways. We all know, everything has a start and has an end. When it comes to the end, I think our duty, our responsibility is to do it in the best possible way, maintaining the respect and admiration for the player and the relationship, but understanding that at the end, we need to make football decisions.

on giving minutes for players in the squad:

Without talking about any specifics, that’s something that we are working on with every individual to understand. Because I would like to have the squad as big as possible because we know what we are fighting for, how long this is and will learn again from the past, especially last year, when we got in some difficult situations and we had two or three injuries in the same area of the pitch. So the deeper the squad that we have, the better. We have to manage that. But the players have to feel important and valued and in order to do that, they need to play minutes.

on if there is more pressure on the players this season:

We need to breathe and we need to take this organically because it’s going to be a long marathon as well. What we need to show is that desire and ambition will be better than what we were last season, a month ago or a week ago when we played Manchester City. We have the ability to improve, to evolve and that’s what I sense and I feel around the club and especially around the players.

on our record against promoted sides at home:

I think every game is different and we’re going to face a really tough opponent. What they’ve done as a club is remarkable, what Frank has done is incredible. After so many years without being in the Premier League, they have earned the right to do that and they have earned it in a really special way. Not only that they are where they are, they absolutely deserve where they are and I love the way they play and the courage that they show in every game.

on Frank Lampard’s work at Coventry:

It’s unbelievable. I know all those stats because I’ve watched a lot of their games, because I know when we faced him, and he was at Chelsea as well. I think what he’s done is remarkable and I’m sure they will show the ambition on Friday night. We are ready because we know what to expect.

on if he’s had time to enjoy being champions:

Yes, I have. To enjoy it, to reflect, it was time for everything. It was a long summer, longer than we usually have. I feel fresh, I feel motivated, I sense the enthusiasm around the place and that’s exactly what I want.

on how hard it is to retain the title:

We’ll find out. We haven’t done it before so I cannot really tell you. I had experience but in a different role. As I said before, it’s about what you put in daily, how you set the standards and how you drive those day by day, to earn the right to be where you want to be at the end of May to give yourself the chance to win it again.

on why he and Lampard have been successful the past 12 months:

Probably because we share the passion and the love for the game and that’s something that fulfils you as a person and it gives purpose to your life. That’s the reason I do what I do with the people that I do it as well, and it gives me so much joy and happiness, and it’s a part of my life that is really fulfilling, and I really enjoy it.

on playing against Frank Lampard:

I’ve seen a few videos about him and I on the pitch. What a player he was, he was one of my favourite midfielders by far, what he could produce, he could do absolutely everything in the midfield, he was a top, top class player.

on Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice’s availability:

Yes, they’re ready to be involved, yes.

on if Timber can join team training this week:

No, I said in the next few weeks. He’s not training with the group yet.

on what is the ideal squad size:

Well, it depends on the availability and the history of those players, I think there is a lot of factors that count. 22 players and three goalkeepers or four is enough, or maybe you need more, need to understand what happened in the previous season, the injury record of those players, the versatility of certain players. I’m sure we’ll land on the right number: a bit of both, a lot of competition, the right level of cooperation in the team, and everybody feeling important.

on the competition in the midfield since Bruno arrived:

Yes, that’s what the new signings bring: a new energy, something to prove in front of them as well, and obviously a competition, and when you talk about players of that quality and leadership, the same with Christos [Tzolis] or with Illan [Meslier], what they’ve done since day one, I think it lifts the level of everybody.

on Bruno Guimaraes’ fitness:

Let’s see how he is. He’s evolving really well, but let’s see for tomorrow.

on the evolution of his team to win by more goals:

The more dominant we are, and the bigger the margins, the better. So in order to achieve that, we’re going to have to be much better in every department. In order to achieve that, we need to have much better availability in the squad than we had last year for long periods of the season so that those margins become bigger.

on Myles Lewis-Skelly being an Arsenal player at the end of the window:

100%.

on if Arsenal are a bad selling club:

It’s not bad or good. It depends on what you have relative to the options you have to sell. Maybe we’ve been extraordinary, depending on the level of the players that we have, the ability and their contracts and their will to go. A possible issue that you can face is that maybe you want to make certain decisions with certain players, but they are happy and want to stay as well. There are a lot of factors that have to be right when you have to sell a player, but it’s not that simple, in my opinion.

on if we need to sell before buying:

Well, it depends on the sporting success as well. I think there isn’t any club in Europe that has had the growth that Arsenal had in terms of the value, in terms of the performances, in terms of the revenues. So that’s something very big. Some other clubs, maybe they need to sell. I think we’re taking an approach that has increased the level and the capacity of the club, big time.

on if he feels there’s a target on our back as champions:

From today, no, because we start from scratch, from zero tomorrow, and we’re going to have to prove we have the level to go back to that position again. But I think that happened in the last three seasons: at some point we were first, some of the time we were chasing it, and you never know what is better. You give me the choice, I want to be first, I want to be hunted, and I want to be in control of our future rather than depend on somebody else. 

on if the atmosphere will shift after winning the league:

I think it’s been an evolution in terms of the atmosphere three, four years ago, then two years ago, then last year. When you are so close as well at some point, that atmosphere and the feeling of not doing it again can restrict you. But when I see the celebrations and the parade and those emotions, I’m very confident that we’re going to have, in my opinion, the best stadium in the world and the best atmosphere in the world, because if we do that, we’re going to be much closer to achieving what we want to do again.

on if it’s important to keep players from the academy:

Certainly. I mean, the players that have been raised in our system and they feel generally that love and that connection with the club, it brings something else. There is no question about that, and we need to look after them in a really special way because they bring value that is very difficult to find. That’s why, when we can, we want to protect those assets as much as possible, develop them and make them extremely important for the club. 

on sending players on loan to Premier League clubs:

I think those are individual cases. Those players have to be ready as well to compete in the Premier League and to play regularly. The priority is to expose those players and give them minutes, you better agree that that’s going to be the case, and how many clubs, teams, managers in this league can guarantee that that’s going to happen to a really young player that probably hasn’t had exposure. If you find it, great, because that’s the level that we want them to compete. But sometimes they need a different pathway. The beauty of this is that the pathway can be completely different and the outcome can be the same, and this is the magic of football as well. 

on a message to our Australian supporters:

I have a really special connection with that country, because I’ve been there, because I love it, because one of my best mates, Tim Cahill, is from there, so I know everything about it.

on how it feels to be favourites:

It doesn’t matter. Our friend is not here today with a supercomputer and all the stats that we normally have! I think it is what it is. I think our supercomputer and what it has to drive us is, the standards daily to be able to, day by day, earn the right to position ourselves there in a really strong way and to play, to perform and to connect with our people in the manner that we want, and if that’s the case, I’m sure we’re going to be very close and then the destiny will decide what happens. 

on if how determined we are to retain our title:

That we want, I guarantee you, with my life, that’s the case, and how willing they are to achieve that. But we need to show, and that’s only on the pitch and the way we act and react and overcome different challenges and opportunities over the season, whether we are capable of doing it or not. 

on Riccardo Calafiori’s versatility:

Well, every player has very specific qualities. Riccy, he has a special energy, a special aura around him that makes him different. He brings that. But Piero [Hincapie] is extraordinary. Everything that he does with very different qualities, and what I want is Riccardo is Riccardo and Piero is Piero because with those two we are much better. The way they complement each other, the qualities that they offer, and that’s what we try to build around the squad. 

on if transfer speculation makes his job harder:

With all honesty, no, because it doesn’t go through my eyes. It goes more through my ears, especially with Dan or Kate that they feed me, OK, what is going on? And my kids that say, ‘are you signing this? how close we are with this?’ The rest I just focus on the information that I gather from Andrea, the board to understand where we are with those transfers and what we are able to do and what not.

Source: www.arsenal.com