Press conference

'It's so important to have energy and momentum'

It is something of a dilemma for Mikel Arteta and his staff.

Do we rest our overworked players for Wednesday's game against Liverpool so they're fresh for our Emirates FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City?

 

Or is it more important to name our strongest side and hopefully head to Wembley with confidence restored on the back of a big win?

 

"I believe that it’s very important to have energy and momentum going into important matches, and in order to do that you have to go game by game," Arteta said.

 

"Today and tomorrow we will assess the players and how they are, and obviously they’ve been hit and a lot of them have played some crazy minutes up until now, and again we’re going to have games every two and a half days.

 

"We will try to put the strongest team out as possible here and as well on Saturday, and to do that we need to know how everyone recovers from the game."

 

Liverpool are still chasing the record points total in the Premier League era, so how will that affect the way Arteta approaches the game?

 

"You look at the last game and the way they’ve played and the line-ups they’re putting out, you can tell that they’ll be coming here with full commitment to try and win the points," he said.

 

"The result that they had at Man City, when you look back at the game it could have been completely different and you cannot question the attitude or energy of that team in any game or any minute.

 

"That’s probably one of the non-negotiable that they have and you can see that in every game."

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