Every word Mikel Arteta said on Atletico Madrid, Diego Simeone and Liverpool title boost

Mikel Arteta addressed the media ahead of the UEFA Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid. Arsenal, having already beaten Athletic Club and Olympiacos, has the chance to make a statement in the competition by beating one of its heavyweights.

There were updates on team news following the win over Fulham, while there was also a reaction to the result at Anfield, which gave the Gunners a boost in their title hopes. Piero Hincapie was spotted in training again and could make the squad on Tuesday evening.

Here is every word the Arsenal boss said from the press conference room:

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A couple of days since the win over Fulham at the weekend, just how pleased were you with that victory and the mentality you showed to get over the line?

Well, very happy, obviously, and especially after international breaks when you know that you have to, again, align and regroup everybody, and you could tell that in the first ten minutes that we were a bit still getting that rhythm. But afterwards, I think, watching the game back that we deserved to win the game.

There are things to improve, but we take the win and we move on now for the Champions League match.

And just a question on fitness. Piero Hincapie trained before the match against Fulham but wasn't in the squad, saw him on the pitch earlier. Is he available for tomorrow?

Yeah, he will be available and I think that game came a bit too early for him, so he had another two very good sessions and now he's ready to go.

And coming up against Diego Simeone tomorrow, one of the world's best managers, how highly do you rate him?

Well, at the highest level, I mean, I think what he's done since he got to Atletico has been outstanding. Not only what he has achieved but the way he's done it.

I think the identity that he has created to the club, to the team, the spirit, I think they are very simple and clear to identify and that's because the manager is very much them. And that's extremely difficult to achieve for a short period of time and to do it for 14 years, I think he's been there now, it's something incredible. So, yeah, a pleasure to meet him.

After the match, there was a picture that went around of William Saliba on the team coach, already watching Atletico Madrid. How did that come about and how pleased are you to see your players already turning on to the next fixture?

Very pleased because I didn't encourage it. So it came from them, and that's the most powerful thing: that a game finishes, the job is done, and we've done it, but now, OK, what's next and what's the next challenge, and what's the next opportunity? And we know that it's going to be a really tough one.

So the earlier we start to think about it and prepare, the better. So I love that initiative from the players and it tells you how much they want it and how focused they are in what is next.

You mentioned Diego Simeone there, approaching 14 years, you're approaching six years at Arsenal. Do you look at Simeone as maybe an inspiration and maybe something that you'd like to do at this club?

Well, obviously there is someone that I look up to and learn from him in many situations and what is for me outstanding is his passion. I think for how long he's been in the game and in the same club with the same players, how you still have that hand and that capacity to transmit such an energy and willingness to win. It's a very tough environment that we live in and to keep convincing players you have to be extraordinary well.

I don't know personally but everything I heard about him is that he's so good at doing that. That's one of the reasons why you are able to sustain at that level.

He's been linked with the Premier League on numerous occasions. Is he someone you'd like to see come to the Premier League?

It's going to get tougher. We have enough and super good managers here so I don't know, that will be completely up to him. If one day he wants to experience that, what I can say is that from what I've seen and after analysing the team, how well they are coached.

Just reflecting on your last three games in the Premier League, there was one point from those three games last season, you've got nine out of nine this time. What's changed and what lessons have you learnt, not just from those games but from last season?

Well, we have to obviously get as much information as we can and understand the reasons why we dropped some points there and then try to implement them. Sometimes from a draw to a win, there are details that have to go your way.

It's true that the team shows a different kind of maturity, threat and probably conviction at this stage, but it's still very early. We have to do it now for another set of games and that's going to be the objective.

You say it's very early. The bookies have already made you the favourites for the title. Do you embrace that, and do you think you are the favourites now?

The only thing that I embrace is when I see the team, the energy, the temperature, the commitment and the quality that they can deliver, that it gives me that conviction that we can go all the way. But that's it, that's just a feeling that the next day you have to prove it, the next training session you have to prove it and nothing else, and we cannot be busy thinking about those topics.

When you started here, did you look at the way at Atletico he moulded the club's culture and his image and you took from that something you wanted to do when you tried to mould the culture here?

No, I think I got that done more through my experiences and my beliefs and especially my understanding of Arsenal and this football club I am experiencing here because I think to put a different context to this one is extremely difficult and at the end I think you have to be authentic to your beliefs, your way of dealing with people, especially which is the most important thing when you talk about culture and slowly you have an idea and you have to access through that, sometimes change a little bit the trajectory to understand what is the best for the club.

I just wanted to ask you one on the defence, obviously the numbers have been incredible this season, we've seen Gabriel Heinze who joined in the summer, we see a lot of the warm-ups in working with the defenders, very animated, what's he brought to the defence this season and what is he like as a coach that he's added to your set-up this year?

I think that's something very, very collective with all the coaches, with the players, with their commitments as well and Gabi added something different, that willingness to win I think and we've seen that obviously through his career, that experience to win and to elevate somebody's level and ambition and drive to the highest limit and he's extraordinary at that.

One of your main title rivals this weekend failed to win, Liverpool against Manchester United, do you ever notice on the training field after one of your main rivals has failed to win that your players perhaps have a bit more of a spring in their step during a training session?

I haven't noticed that, but obviously, there is a lot of narrative afterwards, but that's it, every game in this league its a must-win and a very difficult game to win, and we're all very appreciative of that, so you don't get carried away with any of that.

When you come up against a manager who has been in place for such a long period of time, does that in any way make your preparation for perhaps what you might expect from them easier or because there's so much data and so much evidence, does that in some ways make it harder to prepare for a game?

Well on this one I think the hardest thing is the time that you have basically, a day when you can't really do much to prepare that, obviously understanding and the time that we have to spend to analyse and understand that. They have evolved as well from the team that they were probably a year ago to now and how they can change as well in relation to the context of the match which is something very specific for this team and in order to prepare the best way you want to give them everything but how you're able to simplify the information and make it as concrete as possible for being in the best position to implement what we want to do tomorrow.

Can you just give us an insight into what makes Diego Simeone's team so difficult to play against and break down?

Well first of all the willingness to win, you can sense that in every single ball, in every single yard, the way they play. So it's about how they compete and then after how they play and I think there are two very different things and in order to analyse what they are, the level of organisation is really high, the level of discipline is really high and then they have acquired a lot of talent throughout the years that are very specific for the needs and the way they want to play and they are very good at exploiting those opportunities.

He has been linked with a move to the Premier League for years, do you think he could be successful? Do you think what he does in Spain could work in England

Well, if he works in the Champions League, which is the highest competition in Europe, he can do it anywhere, and I don't know, you have to come here and try it and feel it, but I'm very sure that his know-how is unbelievable, and his character and willingness will take him anywhere, I think.

The set-piece record improved again at Fulham. Can you talk a bit about the work that goes into maintaining that threat, because it's not a fluke; it's been two or three years where new routines come, the unpredictability is always there. Can you talk a bit about the work that goes into maintaining that over such a long period?

Well keep evolving and keep improving, it's a system that when you put it in place, the system has to learn every single day, every single game to become better and that's in relation to the players that we have and what we learn from ourselves and as well what we learn from the opposition and try to be as consistent as possible.

In order to do that you have to give importance to certain topics to become really important and we try to do that in the way that we share the time and the focus in game preparation and then it's delivery.

Gabriel Heinze you just said before about his willingness to win and he's obviously won a lot of tasks in his playing career, in the drills he's often one-on-one with the players before and after the games, what does he kind of bring to the table in terms of the one-on-one scenarios with players?

That experience, I mean if somebody tells you, if you do that you're going to be successful and you know that he's done it and he's been successful, it's a lot of credibility there.

And how the players reacted to him, he's obviously a very passionate person, I don't know but from what you can see how all the players kind of reacted to him.

It's a question for him, my feeling is that they already love him, which is normal, but the rest of the coaches is the same, they are all very different characters, but the relationship and the bond that we have with the players I think it's unique, and I think that's something very, very powerful in the team.