Every word Mikel Arteta said on Man Utd, team news, Odegaard captaincy vote and transfers

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of his Arsenal side's first Premier League match of the new season against Manchester United. Unsurprisingly, he was in a buoyant mood, clearly itching to get going and chase down a first trophy since the 2020 FA Cup success.

There were questions surroundingthe latest on team news and transfers, of course. But others around the pressure of a new campaign, his new-look side with its new playersand a chance to get the manager's thoughts on a variety of topics.

Here is every word from the press conference as Arteta faced the media:

READ MORE: Ruben Amorim fires Viktor Gyokeres verdict and drops Man Utd team news hint vs Arsenal

READ MORE: Mikel Arteta press conference - Arsenal boss on Man Utd, title hopes, transfers and injuries

I've got a little first question in the form of a new season poem.

Okay, go on

Arsenal are red, United are too. It's Sky's biggest Premier League season ever. We're excited. Are you?

I'm super excited. I can't wait. It's been a really productive pre-season. We made such an evolution in the squad as well, and we're ready to go.

Is the excitement also linked to the fact that you've gone early in the market? You're bringing six quality players all over the pitch. Injury-wise as well. You would hope so anyway, but looking fairly clear apart from Gabriel Jesus. Is that all part of it, the mood in the place?

Especially the mood on the place, the energy around it, the enthusiasm that the boys, the staff came from day one and now we're to do better, to keep improving as a team and to win. That's what drives my energy and that's why I'm so excited.

I guess Leo Trossard was the only doubt from last weekend, has he?

Yeah, I think he's much better. I think he will be able to train again tomorrow and if that's the case, he will be fit.

Of course, there's still a couple of weeks just over to go in the window. I'm not going to ask you, maybe others will, whether you're planning to bring anybody else in, but is the main emphasis now potentially on trying to get a few out?

I'll leave that to Andrea and the club. My main focus is just about performing, preparing the games in the best possible way and winning because now we've started the season, it's been a long off-season, pre-season with the market and being so active on it and I'll leave it to them.

We're celebrating the start of the Premier League season but it's a tough start for Arsenal, isn't it? I need to tell you what games are coming up, Liverpool even before the international break, then Man City and Newcastle Forest.

We need to play each other, we need to play at some point and we'll start at an incredible stadium with so much history and a beautiful way to start the season. We will go game by game and make the best preparations, and then perform to earn the right to win the game.

Where you are at the end of that run of games, will that say a lot about the potential for winning the title this season?

Yes, especially the consistency we showed in the last three years. Now the margins, we know how small they are, we know the competition as well has increased the level with recruitment with another year together and we're going to have to wait and see.

How many teams this season can realistically compete for and maybe win the Premier League title?

A lot, too many in this league and it's getting stronger and stronger, and there are teams probably that maybe you don't put them on a piece of paper right now, but suddenly they will surprise everybody. I mean the squads, the quality of the managers, the structure they have within the clubs, they are so strong that it's going to be very difficult.

Old Trafford on Sunday, always a great game, Manchester United and Arsenal, Arsenal and Manchester United. What do you expect from United this season? Do you expect them to be better than last season?

I don't know, they will be different as well and the manager will have more time with them. They have a pre-season, they made some really good signings as well like anybody else. I think they strengthen, and they will be better than last year like the rest of the teams.

Two new goal scorers in opposite teams, they've got Sesko, you've got Gyokeres. In a different world it might have been them coming face-to-face but for different teams. What made you in the end go for Gyokeres ahead of Sesko?

I can just talk about Viktor and how happy we are to have him. I think he's going to have a tremendous impact in the team. The adaptation has been very, very good and we're really happy to have him.

And he’s off to a great start.

Yeah.

Just a final thought, Tony Adams is obviously a bit of a hero at Arsenal. He's been saying that he believes that with Martin as your captain you won't win the Premier League but Declan should be the captain. Obviously that's his opinion, what's your thoughts on that?

Well my opinion is clear and it's not just my opinion, it's all the staff and especially the players. I asked them to vote the captain and I got the result yesterday and by a mile away, by a big, big 100 miles, everybody choosing the same person, which is Martin Odegaard. Which is the most clear sign that you can have. It's how they feel about who has to be their captain to defend, improve and win the matches that we want to win. So I think there's no question about that.

You've been the Arsenal manager for nearly six years. It feels in terms of transfers, perhaps that summer 2025 has been the most satisfying you've had. How did you feel as a manager that the club supported you this summer?

Yeah, well it's not supporting me of course but supporting the team, supporting the vision, the idea and especially the ambition and the level that we are playing, the competition we have and what we expect to do. So, we have to improve the squad, we have to improve the quality and the depth of that squad and we said something, we've done it in a really great way.

Victor Gyokeres, he had a wonderful season, last season in all competition. If you look at the Portuguese league, it's a great league but there is a gap between the Portuguese League and the Premier League. How yourself, your coaching staff and Viktor's teammates are hoping to support him to get the best version of him as an Arsenal player?

Well, we're going to do everything. First of all, understanding the player and exposing the player to the conditions that he can fulfil his incredible potential. That's going to be the key and the good thing is that there have been many players, many strikers, they have come from different leagues, they have come to the Premier League and been successful. And it's for us creating the right context for Viktor to do what he does the best, which is to score goals.

Man United against Arsenal, that's one of the greatest rivalries in the Premier League. As a player, as a manager, you've experienced it many times. Share with us one memory that stands out the most.

Well, it's a lot. It's some great memories. It's history. It's the clashes when I was younger as well and there were some massive characters as well playing for both teams and it created something different in those games. Now it is different but still it's going to be super intense and I'm very excited.

Are you as excited at the beginning of the season as you have been every other season as either a player or a manager?

I think it gets you more and more excited, and the more I spend time with the players and the staff, the more reason they give me to come every single day with a big smile on my face, with a lot of energy. I'm very enthusiastic about what we do. I feel very, very privileged.

A difficult start has already been mentioned to you. You can play that two ways. One is difficult, it's getting the games out of the way. The other is a positive way in that if you come through this and you play really well and get good results, you're in a much better position than others who have those difficult matches somewhere down the road. I guess having known you for a while, that's the view you're going to take?

100%, and it's a big opportunity now to go to Old Trafford on day one and go there, play the way we want to play and win the game. That's the focus, and the energy is just on that.

You've always said in the past as well that no one puts more pressure on you than yourself. But do you feel, after having come close three times now, knocking on the door for a title, that this season really is the most pressure on you and your team?

Yeah, you keep digging, digging, digging and you have to be digging because one day the gold is going to be there. That's all the time. When I've been taught, when I've been educated and that's it. For three seasons we've had more points than any other team in this league, which is incredible. That's how you have all the consistency. Now we have to do it in a season to have one more point or the same amount of points and more goals different than any other team. That's the objective.

A lot of people are going to ask you questions about Gyokeres and Zubimendi and about Madueke and all the players you've brought in. But it strikes me that this is one of the clubs in particular now which still holds values of the youth team and coming through academies and playing players if they're good enough that you've brought through. We saw it last season with Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri who signed a new contract in the summer and I think everyone would have been excited about Max Dowman having seen him during preseason. Just explain again what it means to this club to have those young players available to you and the courage that you have to play them.

Well that shows the great work that has been done in the academy throughout the years, especially because those players have come to the first team and performed at the highest level without any professional experience and that's a very different case to any other player that in big clubs they've been playing at 17, 18, 19, 20 with many other experiences before that, whether it's loans or playing in different teams.

So that shows again what the academy has done: the preparation of these boys, the maturity of these boys and as well the quality that we have in the squad to support the young players to feel so comfortable immediately to perform at the highest level. So it's a compliment for everybody at the club.

We saw Viktor Gyokeres play the two games at the Emirates and you could see the understanding increased over that time but he didn't have too much team training before he joined. Is he fit and ready to start at Old Trafford?

Yeah, he's getting better and better every day. He's normally a really fit player. It's true that he hasn't trained so much with us. He had those two moments in games when he participated and the feeling was very good. So let's see what we do on Sunday.

And through this pre-season it seems as though if there's been any minor feeling of a player you've taken them out like Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori to go against any injury issues. Last year availability was an issue for you. Have you had to manage differently or think about it going into this season?

Well especially because those two cases were players that were coming from long-term injuries so we have to be very cautious throughout pre-season especially when you start to travel abroad and there are so many conditions that change for those players. We have more players, more balance as well in terms of availability. We have improved that in relation to individual qualities of players as well and it's going to be key to maintain them for as long as we possibly can. Fit, available at their best.

Another new signing, Martin Zubimendi, how is he going? Is he available for Sunday as well?

Yes, he had a great integration. Everybody can witness immediately a very big impact on the team and we're really happy and he will be fit.

There's a lot of excitement about Viktor Gyokeres as obviously a new signing but Kai Havertz has had a really strong pre-season period as well. Do you see it as a straight fight between those two players for that No.9 position and if so is that something you've had to speak to Kai about and how do you intend to manage that across the season?

Well it's always we're going to play with 11 players, there are going to be some players on the bench that are going to be used, some others that cannot be used, some players that we're going to have to leave in the stands.

That's the level, that's the next level that we're going to face, something that probably we haven't faced before. And then I heard a lot that you have two players per position, well we have three and four because there are players that can play in different positions as well.

So it's going to be about earning the right to play, to compete and when you don't have the chance to do that to co-operate with the right way with any teammate to improve the level. And it's going to happen to all of them because the season is going to be so demanding that the first week is going to be a little bit different but the moment we start to play three times a week it's going to flow in a very natural way.

And you mentioned Ethan Nwaneri, I think it was mentioned earlier, he signed a new contract. Are you happy that with Ethan, with Martin, with Mikel Merino, maybe with Kai, you have enough now in that kind of attacking midfield part of the position?

Yeah. I think we have great versatility, very different qualities in relation to the opposition as well. We can manipulate that and have some great cohesion within those units so very happy with that.

When we last spoke to you in a Premier League context, we were sitting in that room at St Mary's and you talked about how you're going to go away and reflect. I'm kind of curious of what you're willing to share, what reflections did you take and what have you learned going into this new season?

Well, there's a long list of things. First of all, with the amount of situations we have to deal with, I think the team showed an incredible capacity to adapt and win a lot of matches in a very different context, something that is not common and I revised that in the last Premier League for 20 years and what happened.

After that, how we have to evolve as well, the squad, the individuals, certain roles have changed and it's the moment to move away from that. And then what is the real deal, what are the things that we have to continue to do or do better to give us the best possible chance to win the major trophies and that's clear.

You used the word evolve there and against Athletic Club and the friendly in the midfield, I noticed a particular evolution, the way in which Declan Rice and Zubimendi were kind of moving around that middle third. Do you see that midfield evolution being perhaps the most key to Arsenal taking that next step forward?

Well, there are a few in relation to the players that we have and their qualities. Now we have probably elements and possibilities that we never had before and some others that will emerge naturally that probably are not in the book. So, that's a really good weapon to have.

You mentioned that there's a vote, is that something that happens every season and within that are there vice-captains selected?

Especially because we change a lot and we change all the leadership groups because a lot of the players that were there now, they are gone. So, we need to re-establish that and because it gives you so much information, really how they feel about themselves and how they see as a leader and how they see the people that can join that leadership group. So, it was really interesting to analyse all the data and to gather information.

Obviously, Tony Adams is going to have a very particular view and a particular experience of what a captain is and maybe his style of leadership is quite different to Martin's. But is it and do you kind of see, what captaincy qualities do you see in Martin?

Yeah, we all see it different and we're going to talk about leadership and the kind of leaders we can be here for hours. So, at the end what matters the most is how these guys feel about who needs to lead them, how they feel comfortable, who is going to push them, who is going to give them support when it's happening. Basically, who do you want to represent the club and the team when we go out there and face any opposition? That's the key.

There's been a few tweaks to the rules again at the start of this season and the way they're going to be implemented, that was something that kind of caught you out a little bit last season when you were on the wrong end of the way that was implemented. What do you do, can you do anything to guard against that this time?

It was very particular and it only lasts for a few weeks and we were really punished for those few weeks but hopefully it won't happen again. I think they've been very clear, we have very good meetings with the referees when we came here and the managers' meeting as well. I think it's very clear what to expect and wish everybody the best. I think we're going to need the best of all of us to have the best Premier League ever, which I think is going to happen, and hopefully we're going to come on top of that.

Are you confident that those rules will be implemented more consistently, not just across the teams but also throughout the whole season?

I think a lot of the data says that there have been many, many improvements as well in the last year or two, and we need to reinforce that message and try that process and support it.