It was nothing but positive vibes in the post-match press conference at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday night.
After a magnificent seven goals in the Champions League Round of 16 first leg, Mikel Arteta faced the media, and was asked about the game, goalscoring, Martin Odegaard’s form, confidence and more.
Here’s a full transcript…
On tonight’s performance…
I really enjoyed the match – thank you to the players for the performance they put in on a big night for us against a really good side. The way they went through in the last round against Juventus was really impressive so the manner that we’ve done it, the way that we’ve played, the goals that we scored; thank you because it was a special night.
On how big this win could be…
Well, it obviously gives us a lot of joy, confidence and belief, and then in football, it’s not what we did three days ago, or today, it’s about what we’re going to do tomorrow, or at Old Trafford, how we behave and able to win again, and that’s it. Enjoy tonight because it was a very impressive performance, an unbelievable score, so we deserve that, and now take that, and keep improving as a team.
On goals from all over the pitch…
There were a few players today, we are ready to take the initiative. When you get to this stage, you have to really play and love the game and take initiative and go for it. And today we have a full-back in Myles who puts a cross in for the opposite winger; you have Jurrien scoring a header as a full back and you have Richy with the movement of a nine and scoring with his right foot, that’s what I’m talking about – flow, courage and playing the way we want to play.
On Ethan Nwaneri closing in on a record (for most goals before turning 18)…
I don’t think that he needs any pushing! You see him every time he has the ball what the intention is, so if he comes, he comes, and it’s great and really impressive again the way he behaved, the way he played tonight. It’s about consistency now, doing it again three days later in another big stadium.
On if this feels like a landmark moment…
Well, it’s very significant but it’s just to put yourself in a really strong position to go through into the next round, and that’s it, that’s the reality. To have a landmark, you have to really take it to a different level but obviously, this team has done a lot that hasn’t been done in many years or in the history of the club, which means a lot.
On the confidence in Martin Odegaard’s display…
I think a lot of players made him flow today, you could tell today that he was loose. He was enjoying it; he was with that energy and that flow that then he becomes a player that makes the difference for the team. I’m really happy that he was in a big night like that, the captain steps up and puts in a performance like he did tonight.
On being able to push on…
That’s what we want, but at the end, it’s a thing of execution. Today we were exceptional – we talked before the game, boxes in the Champions League are critical, you have to dominate them. If we hadn’t done it in the first action, they would have scored a goal, and then the other one was a penalty, but we were phenomenal today. Willingness is for sure going to be there, execution is something else.
On if the boss knew we would score seven goals…
I knew it was coming! That’s the beauty of football, if I gave everybody in the room an envelope to predict what was going to happen tomorrow and who is going to score, that’s the beauty of football. Football is, you did very well today, put your head down, analyse how you can improve but the next game is going to be completely different to this one and nobody can read the script unfortunately, even if we would like to.
On achieving our biggest away win in the Champions League…
It’s something that hasn’t been done so it’s great to be a part of that, but as a team we want to achieve many other things that are far more important than that. The happiest thing that I am is because we are in a very strong position to go to the next round which is where we want to be, but there’s still a job to do for sure in London in a week’s time.
On sharing the goals around the group…
It’s been like this for the last three or four years, we score a lot of goals and the way we share the goals around the squad has been really impressive, so it’s really good because we’re not just depending on one player. When we don’t score, we know what’s going to happen, but I’m very pleased, I think the quality of the goals tonight were incredible.
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