Mikel Arteta faced the press ahead of our clash against Rapid Vienna. He addressed a couple of issues including the possible return dates for our injured players.
on Gabriel Martinelli returning from injury…
Gabi is another one that even in a moment of adversity, you see him training and everything he brings to the team, his energy, his passion, his motivation, is translating positive emotions to everybody. He tries and goes and goes again and he wants to score a goal. He’s ruthless in training in every single action and the more players and staff you have to add that, at the end that gets translated to what happens on the football pitch and over time you will be stable. Gabi’s pressing brings something different to the team and we need players like him.
on remaining patient with Martinelli after such an injury…
Time is the key word in this industry, and nobody is going to give you time! The moment the ball doesn’t go in the net and you lose a football match, you’re going to question all the rest, so with Gabi it’s the same. Now he needs time. He’s done it for a period of time and in certain moments throughout a game, but consistently for three years, two or one? He’s never done it. I’m sorry, he’s never done it, so we cannot put that pressure on him. It’s like with Bukayo and other young players that we have, they’ve never done it in their career, so why do you expect him to do it today? And in which environment? In which context? Patience, but he’s a positive guy to have back on the team because he’s such a character.
on Calum Chambers…
He’s evolving really well. He’s played some minutes with the under-23s in recent weeks. It’s been a long injury and you know that injuries like that take a long time to get your body, your biomechanics completely natural to compete. But I will say that now he’s very close to returning to play.
on how impressed he’s been with Calum…
He got injured against Chelsea if I remember correctly and he was starting the game. He was having a really good time. I think his performances were much more stable, he was growing in confidence, he matured a lot from his spells on loan at different clubs as well. Then he’s also a fantastic character. He went through the injury in an incredible way, everyone that’s involved with him during the rehab, during training, says incredible things about him. He’s such a nice guy, a great character to have around, and is a player we can utilise in different positions which is really helpful as well for any squad. We want to have him back and I think he’s very close.
on Thomas Partey…
He’s been training separately in the last week or so and we have to scan him again to see how he’s feeling. He’s a player that is so willing, that is pushing us every day and he wants to do it. At the same time, we have to protect him and make sure that when he gets back in the team, he is ready to do that and to whatever extent of minutes we can use him, so it’s going to be crucial with the moment he starts to train with the team to see how he is feeling and how he is evolving day-to-day.
on whether he thinks Thomas could be involved on Sunday…
We don’t know again, he is really pushing every day and he’s trying to get around the doctor and the physios but he hasn’t trained with the team yet so let’s see this week if he can get a session or two and then assess him, we need to scan him again so we can see the extent of the injury and how it’s healed. I know if it’s up to Thomas then he wants to play tomorrow. We have to see medically that he is safe to participate at all.
