Arteta - It’s a competition we want to fight for

Mikel Arteta has made no secret of his desire to progress in the Carabao Cup this season. 

Despite a tricky start to our 2021/22 Premier League campaign, our FA Cup-winning manager has his sights set on more silverware this term. 



We spoke to the boss ahead of our trip to The Hawthorns on Wednesday evening - and here’s what he had to say: 



on the chances of Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale being involved...

We will see. They’ve both been training a few days, only a few days, we just got the VISA from Martin yesterday I think and Aaron has been a while without training, but they both want to play.

on if the Carabao Cup is a good chance for us to build intensity...

Yeah, let’s see who is available again. We had some knocks and stuff from the game and players that need minutes and want minutes, and it’s a competition obviously that we want to fight for. We need a win as well.

on his message to the fans ahead of our games against West Brom and Manchester City...

First of all, to say thank you because the atmosphere that we saw before the game when the team was getting the introduction of every member, it was so special, I had goose bumps and I was feeling like nothing before. Then I think they tried to support the team very much and I know they are disappointed when you lose at home, there has to be some reaction, but this is a project that is going to take some time. You can see and tell from the recruitment that we’ve done and the really young squad that we have at the moment and it cannot happen overnight. We all want to make it as quick as possible and we know that the responsibility for us it to fight with the top teams in every competition and that’s not going to change, and I think we really need them and this group of players really needs them and the club needs them now next to us because we need that confidence, that support and that energy.