Morning all.
It’s a bit of a running gag about Mikel Arteta’s press conferences that he doesn’t like to give too much away, whether that’s in terms of team news, injury updates, or anything else. I suppose, as a manager, there are days when you feel like sitting in front of the reporters is fine, it’s part and parcel of the job – and then there are other days when you’re just not in the mood.
I think yesterday might have been one of the latter. It’s not that he was rude or belligerent, as some managers can be, just not quite as willing to expand on some of the questions he was asked. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say “I don’t know” as much as he did yesterday. Which isn’t criticism, I think we all have days at work where we’re not at our most effusive, or there’s one aspect of the job that seems like hassle.
He was asked about whether Newcastle would come flying out of the blocks tomorrow. He replied, “I don’t know what they have prepared.”
He was asked if it was possible Man City could feel pressure in the run in, he replied, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
He was asked in the second half (embargoed until 10.30 last night), if he was worried about William Saliba going into the last year of his contract, which might require the club to sell in the summer if new terms can’t be agreed. He replied, “I don’t know.”
To be fair, he did expand on some of those answers. On Saliba in particular, he went on to say:
“Obviously Edu and the board are on top of every negotiation regarding new contracts and now we are doing everything we possibly can to do that in the right moment at the right time.
“The communication and the relationship is super. It is about timing, I think. Nothing else.”
He was also really keen to play down the idea that last season’s game at Newcastle would provide extra motivation for his players this time around, saying:
I don’t think so. There is not a lot to motivate from there, there are a lot of things we have to do much better than we did on the day. It’s a different group of players as well and where we are today is very different to that group. We’ll have to play much better than we did last year, that’s for sure.
Which I do think is interesting. I’m convinced that last year’s end of season pain has been part of why we’ve done better this time around. Obviously players like Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko weren’t part of that, but for the majority of them, the way the top four slipped away must have been painful. Hurt is a great motivator. It’s not the only one, it doesn’t trump your desire to win, to carry out your professional duties, but it’s there.
I have a slight suspicion that Arteta is expecting a hot atmosphere at St James’ Park tomorrow, and is deliberately playing down anything that might stir that up. Newspaper headlines tomorrow about the Gunners are out for revenge could be viewed as unhelpful if it gets the home fans even more up for it. It’s not as if the manager hasn’t played a significant part in how vociferous our own home support might be, so he’s choosing his words very carefully. After talking so much about how Anfield can be a difficult place to go, this time around he’s not going to make an issue of where we’re playing or who.
I also think he just got out of the wrong side of bed yesterday, so maybe it was just that.
There’s not a lot else going on this morning. As summer approaches we’re getting stories about war-chests and how much money we have to spend; William Saliba got a new gym at home so that’s convinced some people he’s definitely going to stay, as if he couldn’t just rent his house out for more because it’s a got a gym. I’m not saying he’s not staying, by the way, I sincerely hope he does, but a bit of home improvement isn’t the cast-iron assurance I’d need.
Anyway, I’ll be back tomorrow to preview the Newcastle game here, and we already have the podcast for you over on Patreon – which of course doesn’t include the context of Man City’s 8-0 win over Leeds, which is where the blog might have a bit of an advantage.
Until then!
