Every word Mikel Arteta said on
Declan Rice injury,
Balogun future,
Transfers and Barcelona win
Mikel Arteta has spoken to the press after Arsenal's 5-3 victory over Barcelona in a pre-season friendly at SoFi Stadium.
Needed to be physical tonight?
It got really competitive for a friendly match. It got that way after the first tackle, the first goal. Playing in front of 70000 people helps create an atmosphere. They are elite players and they all want to win. But at the end, I think it got a bit too much for a friendly, but I think the show that we put in for all the people that came to watch was really good.
Flo Balogun wasn't involved tonight. Does he have a role this season?
He was unavailable. He has a little foot injury and hasn’t been training with us.
We will see. First of all, he needs to be fit and play minutes.
Is this the Arsenal we can expect to see this season - one that steamrollers everyone?
Yes, that’s how we want to play. We want to smother a rival, we’ll play the game we can, but we’ll play the game in any field we go to. We’ll play the same way in any game we play.
Xavi said he was surprised by the intensity of the game. What do you think about that?
At the end of the day, soccer belongs to the players. We’re playing in front of 70,000 people and as soon as the game starts they’ll rebel against the coaches as soon as the game starts and they’ll do what they want. As soon as there’s the first foul of the game they’ll start getting intense and they’ll start playing.
Now the tour has finished will you look at getting one or two players out and maybe bringing one in?
Well, we have 30 players here which is unsustainable. Obviously, the market is still open and things can happen. We are prepared. I’m really happy with the squad we have at the moment. We have improvements to make in terms of what we want to do in games and we still have to do that. Overall really pleased with the team.
Can sharing goals be enough to compete with City?
I don’t know. We need to score as many goals as possible and if we have someone who scores 25, 30, 40 goals great. Gabi today didn’t score but it’s the best Gabi I have seen for months. Transmitting that energy, that belief. He was creating a lot of chaos, a lot of good moments and making everyone better. I’m really pleased with that and the contribution of Kai. He has that quality and that’s why he’s playing that position with Leo (Trossard). We have a lot of options up front and they are going to have to compete between them to give me a hard time
Rice was out tonight, is he OK and do you think Zinchenko could be back for the start of the season?
Dec had quite a strong kick in training so we didn’t want to take the risk. He wasn’t really comfortable training yesterday and we decided not to train. Alex had a little muscular issue, unfortunately. I think he will be back soon but it’s a shame he hasn’t been with us the whole tour.
What did you make of Trossard tonight?
Great to see him scoring. He’s been working so hard and came in a really good condition for pre-season. He gives us something very different to the other wingers we have and he has got incredible versatility and unpredictability to play in different positions too. It will be good for his confidence, for sure.
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Declan Rice injury, 
Needed to be physical tonight?
Xavi: "I understand that everyone wants to win, but I told Arteta that it looked like a Champions League match. The intensity that they put was too high."
