In the lead-up to the crucial match against Manchester City, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta shared insights on the opposition, their game plan, and Erling Haaland. He also discussed the role of former City players, Jesus and Zinchenko, in the Arsenal squad.

• Mikel Arteta emphasises the importance of experience from ex-City players Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko in Arsenal’s squad.
• Arsenal has analysed Manchester City’s strengths and weaknesses, including the threat posed by Erling Haaland.
• The team must be prepared to adapt to City’s versatile tactics while focusing on their own strengths to cause problems.

Speaking to the press before Arsenal’s must-not-lose game at the Etihad on Wednesday night, Arteta acknowledged the importance of experience in such high-stakes matches and praised Jesus and Zinchenko for their ability to transmit their knowledge to the rest of the team.

He also emphasised that their experience and influence have been ongoing since August, and not just a recent development.

“I think experience is key when you’ve been in those moments, to handle those moments and to understand the importance of certain things when you are competing in a football match,” Arteta said.

“The capacity to transmit as those two players have done for the rest of the team – a lot of things that are very, very important. Some of the rest of them are young but they’ve played a lot of games already.”

Regarding Manchester City’s threat and Erling Haaland, Arteta explained that Arsenal has analysed both City’s strengths and weaknesses.

He acknowledged the challenge of dealing with City’s versatile playing style and said that Arsenal must be prepared to adapt to the opposition’s tactics. Arteta emphasised focusing on Arsenal’s strengths to cause problems for City.

“Obviously, we have worked on their threat as well as we have worked on their weaknesses and we know where they are,” Arteta explained. “The issue with City is that they start with the goalkeeper – they are a threat when the ball is with him. You have to control every single player.

“But we just focus on us: we know what they want to do, what they’re going to try to do and they can do various things. They can play with a box inside, they can play with a diamond, they can build the game with three, they can be asymmetric on one side, they can pull one out on the right and play a diamond, they can put [Kyle] Walker higher.

“They can do so many things that you have to be able to adapt to, so you have to focus on certain principles to try and play the game how you want.”

So will Arsenal be modifying their approach to the game? “That’s what we do every game in certain areas,” Arteta replied. “Are we talking in ball possession or talking out of possession, in transition moments? Are we talking about the restart? Are we talking about set pieces? Are we talking about the emotional state? You have to shift it all the time.

“Every opponent demands and questions you differently and gives you different opportunities. And this is no different with that team. Obviously, the quality of the opponent is as good as it gets anywhere in the world, that’s for sure.

“There are margins. You can’t give anything away. That’s for sure. Big teams, they punish you straight away. For many periods in that game, we did really really well and we deserved much better.

“Once we have the [City] lineup, we will have more of a rough idea but it depends on who they play. They can do something different, just like we can.”

But again, we had one or two moments that we gave them, and in those moments, the game was over.

As for Erling Haaland, Arteta praised the striker’s goal-scoring ability and the way City has set up the team to facilitate his success. He mentioned that Haaland’s presence allows City to play in different ways, making them a more versatile and dangerous team.

Arteta suggested that the best way to stop Haaland from scoring is to prevent him from receiving the ball in the first place.

When you look at the numbers, there’s no comparison with anybody else. He’s able to produce that because the setup is done the right way for him, the players that he’s got around him, the way he is coached, as well as obviously the qualities that he has.

“With him, they have the capacity to play in different ways,” Arteta said. “Because when they play really far from your goal, they have the capacity to exploit open spaces. And when they are attacking low blocks, now they have a different threat, because they are a very physical team right now.

“Obviously, preventing it at the source is probably the best recipe [to stop Haaland scoring].

Lastly, Arteta touched on his communication with Pep Guardiola, stating that they had not been in contact this week and that their last conversation was likely during their previous encounter.