Interview

Arteta on the win, returning players, transfers

It was a valuable run-out for a our players on Thursday as we beat Brentford 4-0 in a behind-closed-doors friendly at London Colney.

We spoke to Mikel Arteta after the match to discuss the performance, the fitness of his squad and his transfer window thoughts.

This is what he told Arsenal Media:

on how valuable a game it was...

Yes we had the possibility to play Brentford again and we had quite a lot of players who needed some minutes, some of them coming back from injuries, some of them after Covid, so it was a good test and a good work-out.

on Ben White and Gabriel featuring...

Yeah, really good. We don't have any big injuries as well, they have the minutes, we could work on some things, so it was a good idea to play the game.

on working with players in the international break...

Yeah, again because some of them are coming back from injuries, some of them that had Covid and could not travel with the national team, so we worked with them.

on the state of the squad going into the Norwich game...

Well let's see because things change every day so hopefully we will get three or four back that we miss a lot in the last few weeks, and hopefully we don't lose anyone on the internationals.

on our transfer window strategy...

It was a really complicated market. We had a lot of things to do, I think we had 16 or 17 transactions in total, which is a lot. The club has made a big effort, we had support from the owners to try to do it and we had to recruit in the terms that we could, and I am very pleased.

on signing young players with experience...

Yes, different experiences, some had experience in the league, so abroad, and some have been coached in other ways, but they are players we have followed for a long time that we knew could fit in the model we are trying to implement at the club. So we are pleased.

on how he will integrate the new signings...

Again, it is 16/17 changes to the squad - it is a lot. You have to blend them all together, some of them haven't even trained with us yet because they have still to come in the next week or so. As quick as possible. We have a good group, they will help them to adapt as quick as possible and get them to work with us and see when we can integrate all together.

on the signing of Tomiyasu...

Again, we followed him for a while. We needed a full back who could be very versatile, can play as a centre back, can play in a back three, Tomi has this  capacity. He is 22 years old but he has some really good experience in Serie A and at international level and with the qualities we are looking for.

on being able to concentrate on the games now...

Yeah, there has been a lot going on. Obviously we had big things to do, a big transfer window and compliments to the boys because I think the team has done really well to try to satisfy what we could.