Mikel Arteta expressed his aspiration to create magical moments on the pitch following Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United at home this month.
He emphasized the importance of these memorable instances in fostering team spirit and delighting fans, highlighting that such moments are what make football truly special.
With Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace quickly approaching, Arsenal’s manager is seeking more of the same, not only in terms of goals but also in overall performance.
“A magic moment is not only just to score a goal,” he explained in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday. “A magic moment can be Gabriel last year against Manchester United when he plays the striker offside for millimetres. That’s a magic moment as well in my opinion.”
“It doesn’t only have to be scoring a goal, but we have players that are capable of doing it.”
“Doing it every three days, that’s when you become a world class player, a player that wins games with individual actions and we’re trying to develop our players to have more of that because that would be another source of winning games.”
When asked how much a player’s ability to decide a game with a magical moment is influenced by their mentality, Mikel Arteta said it’s incredibly important.
“A lot. Actually, making it happen and believing it can happen again, creating the fear in the opposition that a player or two can deliver that.”
“A player can became, it’s easy to say predictable, [but just because] I know what he’s going to do, actually stopping what he’s going to do is something else.”
However, Arteta is expecting a tough clash for Arsenal against Crystal Palace, owing to how unpredictable the Eagles can be.
He added: “Very tough – when you look at the last results and the approach that they have, the quality of the individuals that they have, how they are coached as well. It’s always really tough, it’s another layer of difficulty as well when you play a team twice in four days, so we have prepared for that.”
Arteta is also well aware that Arsenal have a good chance to win the Carabao Cup, saying: “We want to win and do everything that we can to win it. It’s not about [whether we need or want to win], the pressure is coming in a big club because you want to do the best that you possibly can and that’s related at the end to major trophies, and this is what we want to do.”
