After beating Wolves 2-0, Mikel Arteta headed to the press room at Molineux to answer questions from journalists who witnessed our impressive display.
Mikel tackled topics including the fixture congestion, David Raya's performances in goal, substitutions and our clean sheet record.
Here is everything he said in his post-match press conference:
on how important it was to get back to winning ways:
Really good. I really liked the performance. Obviously the result and the clean sheet, but especially the way individually as a team the team has shown that they still have another step forward to make and ensure the resilience and the determination that is needed in these moments to step in and say: 'I'm here. I'm going to make myself count and I'm going to impact the team.'
on our resilience:
You look at the amount of games that we have played in the last few weeks, the type of game that we have played. The attitude and the way they've run today again is top, but it’s within them they want to win, they want to compete at their best. Their effort is unquestionable and the results are something else. I'm really happy, especially for the approach and the mentality of the team
on what it's like to have a quick turnaround between games:
We stayed in Munich and I think we had an hour, two hours of sleep. We woke up and started to talk about Wolves first of all, and then about what the players need, how we're going to get into this game in the best mental and physical condition and prepare to understand what we have to do in the game to beat them. The boys were unbelievable, the staff are unbelievable. It's a joy to work with them and then we realise that we want to be involved in the big competition, fighting for the Champion League, fighting for the Premier League with the level that it requires. You have to do something special and you have to be something special and determined, and you're going to have that love to compete and expose yourself when it's needed to get the outcome that you want. I thought the boys did that really well today.
on if the boss was tempted to make more changes:
We thought a lot about possibilities. We had to manage the game in relation to the score, to the state and to what they were proposing as well, and we have many options to do that. But I think overall the ones that I played did really well, I think the subs made the impact that we wanted as well, so I'm really pleased. Unfortunately we cannot use all the players, they deserved more minutes, but that's always the same thing.
on the current workload of games:
It's not about us, about Pep or myself. It's about the wellbeing of the players, and especially when you're competing in European competition, everything has to be competing in the same way. You cannot have a team that hasn't played for seven days than three days before and has more recovery time, and then you have to play in the Premier League or the FA Cup. It is not right. You look at it from any angle, it is not right. You want to protect and you always talk about the praise and the protagonist. Let's protect them and let's think about them and do everything that we can to give them the maximum time so they can recover and perform and maintain the show that they put in every week.
on achieving six clean sheets in a row away from home:
Very difficult [to achieve], I don’t know when it’s the last time it was done, but I imagine it wasn’t recently because it’s extremely difficult to do that. Credit to the boys for the level of organisation, for the understanding and especially for the love they show while defending and the platform it gives to the team to win football matches.
on taking pride in that achievement:
They do [take pride] – the pride in the win, for everything. As a team, you want to be as difficult as possible for the opponent and I think we did that today, We conceded a chance, a poor chance, in an individual error, but other than that, I think the team did really well.
on David Raya's save:
Very, very good. He didn’t concede anything up to that point and we had some very open situations to score goals and we didn’t, and that would have changed the course of the game for sure. David was outstanding in that moment to make the save that we needed, and we took advantage [of it]. I think the timing of the first goal was really helpful as well and I’m really happy.
on being able to count on Raya with his performances:
I think he’s been very consistent throughout the whole season and obviously the numbers that we have are proof of that.
on Leandro Trossard's impact since he joined:
He’s a little magician. He can score on any surface and he’s a big threat; so composed, so cool, he can play in different positions. It’s just a joy to have him in the team.
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