Arsenal will play West Brom in their opening match of the Carabao Cup this season and Arteta is keen to do well in the competition.
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has expressed his desire to progress further in the Carabao Cup this season. Arsenal will play West Brom in their opening match of the Carabao Cup this season and Arteta is keen to do well in the competition. Following a difficult start to the new Premier League campaign, which saw the Gunners lose both their opening matches, the Spanish manager is eager to get the first victory of the season. Ahead of the trip to The Hawthorns on Wednesday, he was asked about the chances of new signings Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale being involved in the match.
“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,” Mikel Arteta told the club’s website. When asked whether Carabao Cup is a good chance to build intensity, Arteta said, “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.”
In a message to the fans ahead of the games against West Brom and Manchester City, Arteta added, “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.”
The Arsenal manager then spoke about the new arrivals – Martin Odegaard and Aaron Ramsdale. “I was really happy (to sign Martin) because at one stage we thought it wouldn’t be possible, Madrid wasn’t very keen on selling the player. Martin always expressed his desire to come, but it wasn’t looking very possible and then the door opened and straight away the club was really supportive and Edu did a great job to manage the situation and we got the player that we wanted and we know because we have experience already with him for six months,” he added.
“I think he makes the rest of the players around him better. His work ethic is phenomenal, the way he goes about his job, his professionalism, his character, he’s a very likeable person. I think he has fitted really well into the culture and then for the way we want to play he’s a player with exceptional qualities to add to them.”
“With Aaron I spoke to him a few times before he signed and I was really impressed with his personality, his character. We need two goalkeepers, two top goalkeepers in this club, it’s always been the case and when I was here we always had two really good goalkeepers with different qualities and different age profiles and they need to compete. That’s what we want in every situation. Every role we want people to compete and the goalkeeper situation is no different.”
