Arsenal is the only club for me – Arteta on new contract, injuries and north London derby | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta cannot imagine being at any other club than Arsenal going into the first North London derby of the season.

Facing a potential injury crisis, it is expected he will be without captain Martin Odegaard, summer signings Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and suspended Declan Rice.

Despite this the Arsenal manager, who signed a new three-year contract earlier in the week,  was upbeat about his side’s chances on Sunday.

These are the key moments from his pre-match press conference at the club’s London Colney Sobha Realty training centre.

On his new contract:

“I’m really happy and excited. It shows the alignment between the club, me and the coaching staff. We enjoy working together and we have higher ambitions that we want to fulfil. That’s the way that I look at it and as I said I’m really pleased and grateful as well.”

On Martin Odegaard:

“We need some more tests. Let’s see what happens in the next day or so. This afternoon probably. Let’s see the extent of the injury and how quickly we can get him back. He’s super positive about everything. Martin wants to be here every day, but we have to wait and see.”

On Mikel Merino:

“Better, it’s a slow process because it’s a bone and it takes a while to heal. He’s already doing some stuff and working really hard. We’re using this time to make sure he understands a lot of things that he has questions about so that when he is back to help the team straight away.”

On Gabriel Jesus:

“Gabi was out there. He’s got another session tomorrow and if everything goes well he’ll be ready to be selected in the squad which is great news for us.”

On Riccardo Calafiori:

“He’s another one where we’ll have to wait another day or so.”

On Raheem Sterling:

“He looks great. He’s got a lot of energy, a smile on his face and he’s at it. He wants to prove a point and when someone’s got that in his belly you sense it straight away. Obviously I don’t need to know anything else about his quality and what he can bring to the team.”

How the club has evolved since he joined:

“In the way that we all wanted as we wanted a very different club. We are in the right direction and we have made some huge steps. We have a lot still to make and I sense that hunger from the ownership to the board to all the players and all the staff here. This is the aim and the objective.”

On his relationship with Arsenal:

“No, the emotional attachment that I have, that my family and kids have, the experience that I have with the people is too strong.”

On Raheem Sterling:

“After ten seconds I knew already before the next questions that we needed him here.”

Ahead of Sunday’s Game:

“We’re going to go to Spurs with unbelievable energy and believe that we’re going to go there to be ourselves and try to win the game.”