{"id":1480,"date":"2026-05-28T07:10:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2026-05-28T07:10:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T07:10:05","slug":"defensive-if-its-not-enough-for-us-i-must-innovate-to-try-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=1480","title":{"rendered":"“Defensive? If it’s not enough for us, I must innovate to try to win”"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Es Mikel Arteta Amatriain (San Sebasti\u00e1n, 1982) and receives MARCA <\/strong>\u2014along with two other media\u2014 in his office at the Arsenal Training Centre. We have known each other for more than 22 years and I have never seen him so happy and proud of what he has done this season, after winning the Premier League and reaching the Champions League final on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask. They have just won the Premier. Why did it happen this year and not others (Arsenal was runner-up in the last three tournaments)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answer. Because someone, up there, aligned the planets to make it that way. Other years we have been close, but something was missing. The sensations have been different from the beginning, perhaps the type of player… but the consistency has been similar. I was convinced that we were going to be very close. Not about winning, because that depends on many things. My job has been to convince them to feel like the best, because there were moments of doubt. I gave them energy and told them to have fun like never before.<\/p>\n

Q. Why weren’t you with the players at the title celebration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I felt that they would be more comfortable without my presence. I trained normally that day and, with an hour left before Bournemouth-City, I felt strange, with a different energy. I went up and all the players and staff were watching the game together. And I felt that it was his time. I told them I was going home, and I didn’t pick up the phone or watch the game. My children were in front of the TV and I went to have a barbecue in the garden. Gabi (Heinze) was with me. I heard noises from the neighbors, but I continued doing my thing. That is until, after City finished, my eldest son, Gabriel, came, opened the door and, through tears, told me: ‘Dad, we are Premier League champions.’ We hugged the whole family… and that’s how I experienced it. It gives me goosebumps to see how people experienced it. That a ball is capable of connecting so many people with those emotions is incredible. I always tell it to my players. It doesn’t matter your culture, your ideas, your religion… the ball works magic. <\/p>\n

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\"The<\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
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The editor of MARCA, at one point during the interview in London.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q. They have removed the ‘losing team’ label. Is that so important for this final?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. There is a part of joy and another part of lifting the weight, of relief. To say: ‘We already have this.’ and we must use that now as a tsunami of emotion, hope and hunger to win the Champions League. <\/p>\n

Q. What has been the most beautiful thing about what has already been achieved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. The path. We have done this with people who are worth it. I, at times, have felt vulnerable and wondered if I was capable of achieving this. ‘Am I the ideal person to lead this?’ And you don’t have the answer until you get it. We have done it together.<\/p>\n

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I can’t settle, my job is to look for other formulas to end up winning<\/p>\n

MIkel Arteta<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Q. Let’s go with the Champions League. Since they beat Atl\u00e9tico, especially, they have been accused of being very defensive. How do you take that criticism?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I respect all opinions and then you must decide where to put them: give them importance, throw them away, leave them in your memory, burn them, use them and they serve you… There is room for everything. My job is that if one thing is not enough for us to win, I cannot settle. My job is to look for other formulas to end up winning, to innovate, to look for other ways different from the previous ones. And that’s what we’ve been doing this time.<\/p>\n

Q. Did you look for formulas to counteract what you knew your rivals were going to propose, closing in a lot in the low block?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. With the injuries we have had, there are times for everything. If I put those injuries into a machine and asked for the odds of winning the Premier League, they would have given me 2%. And I wasn’t going to stay with that. We have had to look for other things, with our resources and qualities, to be equally competitive in the 60 or so games we have played, with the demands demanded.<\/p>\n

Q. The other day Luis Enrique referred to you as ‘Mikelito’. You were teammates at Bar\u00e7a: you, very young, and he, already a more mature player. What can you tell me about your rival on the bench? <\/strong><\/p>\n

A. (Laughs) I remember him with great affection for how he was with the young boys and what he was as a player. As a coach, he is someone who has had the leadership to go one way and, with all the noise against him, continue that way and end up winning the way he has. He is an example for everyone.<\/p>\n

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If I put all the injuries we had into a machine and asked it for the probabilities of winning the Premier League, it would have given me 2%.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

P. Zubimendi has been one of their most used players, but he reaches this final with four substitutions almost in a row. What has happened to him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I can give you a thousand examples of players who, in their first year in the Premier, have not been as top as the impressive campaign that ‘Zubi’ has had. But it is also true that he has played a number of games that he had never had before and that has put him in a difficult scenario at some point. For my part, it was a difficult decision, but I think there was a better partner for what type of game. We have given ‘Zubi’ a relief, an oxygen, for these final matches. <\/p>\n

Q. Have you sacrificed a lot on a personal level to get here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I have tried to complement it in the best way, but there is always a very big cost. But I tell you: if there is one person who deserves her place in all this success more than anyone else, it is my wife Lorena (Mikel gets emotional). What she has done with me and my children has no name because I, literally, am not there. And when I am physically, sometimes I am not mentally. She has been the one who has managed to balance me at home. <\/p>\n

Q. The World Cup is coming and Arsenal will have four players in La Roja. Waiting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. I am super proud that they are in Luis de la Fuente’s squad, but what I am most proud of is that, regardless of the role that Luis assigns them, I am one hundred percent convinced that, in the circumstances that the coach needs, they are going to respond well… well, they are a gem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Es Mikel Arteta Amatriain (San Sebasti\u00e1n, 1982) and receives MARCA \u2014along with two other media\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}