Arteta: All of Our Goals This Season Have Come From Open Play? Last Season We Had Many Injuries in Attack

After leading the team to a 1-0 away victory over Napoli in the opening round of the UEFA Champions League league phase, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta accepted an interview with Colombian television.

1-0, the victory belongs to Arsenal. How happy and satisfied are you to start your new season with a win in such a difficult away match at a stadium like the Diego Maradona Stadium?

Yes, we faced a very difficult schedule at the start of the season, and we knew for a long time that this would definitely be an extremely challenging away match. I think the performance of the whole team was absolutely excellent. From the very beginning, from the first minute, we showed great initiative to take on the match positively and attack.

We performed very well in many different phases of the match. I think the way we broke down their defense was outstanding — we were facing a team that was extremely well organized and very disciplined defensively. The only regret is that our overall excellent performance and the many great scoring chances we created were not fully reflected on the scoreboard, meaning that we had to endure a little bit of pressure and a difficult battle in the final stages of the match.

I know you have mentioned many times before that you want your team to have the ability to score goals regardless of the situation and regardless of how chances are created. Perhaps fairly speaking, the media seemed to have an almost excessive focus last season on your goals from set pieces. I do not know whether you noticed that, but so far all 10 of your goals this season have come from open play. What do you attribute this change to? What do you think has caused it?

I will leave the answer to this question for you in the media to analyze and discuss. As I emphasized many times last season, we were missing many key attacking players in the forward areas at that time. Now, those attacking players have returned to the pitch, they are healthy, in good form, and ready to play at any time.

I am truly very happy and pleased today that in such a difficult match environment, in such a challenging away setting, against such a strong top opponent, we were able to show everything we did on the pitch today. We demonstrated strong team character, great determination, and a very high competitive level, which allowed us to win this valuable match.

Among these outstanding attacking players is your captain Martin Odegaard. Can you talk about the understanding between him and Saka? They seem to have been perfectly coordinated since the start of the season and are in excellent form. Of Saka's four assists so far, three have been direct assists for Martin's goals...

I think the chemistry between our attacking players, especially the understanding between the key players in the front line, is exceptional. You can clearly see how they constantly look for each other on the pitch, how they understand each other's movements and intentions, their timing of passes, their eye contact and body signals, and the attacking goals they want to achieve together. Today's match was another great example because the team we faced was indeed extremely difficult to break down defensively.

Before we finish the interview, one very quick final question: after reaching the final last season, how strong is the motivation for you and your whole team to reach the final again?

I cannot wait to compete in the Champions League and hear that familiar Champions League anthem at the stadium again. The last feeling we had from this competition was in Budapest, where the match was ultimately decided by penalties, or more accurately, two penalties: one was a penalty we were not awarded by the referee, and the other was one we failed to score ourselves.

Have you gone back and watched that final again?

Yes. I have watched it many, many times. But regardless, this is a completely new opportunity and a new chance. Today, our new journey has officially begun. We had already made it clear that we wanted to approach this competition with an aggressive attacking attitude from the start and face Napoli head-on, and today we put exactly that into practice on the pitch.