‘I won’t be able to stand on my sofa’ - Covid-isolating Mikel Arteta on watching Arsenal from home
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Updated 31/12/2021 at 15:56 GMT
The Arsenal boss is recovering from coronavirus for a second time and will miss their Premier League game with Manchester City on New Year’s Day, with his assistant Albert Stuivenberg taking charge on the touchline. Arteta says he will need to find a “big room” to pace about because he will not be able to confine himself to the couch.
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says he will need to find himself a “big room” to watch his side’s Premier League game with leaders Manchester City on New Year’s Day, a match he will miss while he recovers from coronavirus.
The Spaniard is isolating for a second time, having also tested positive for Covid-19 when the pandemic first hit the UK in March 2020.
Arteta’s assistant Albert Stuivenberg will take charge on the touchline and he says not having control will be “very strange”.
"I will need a big room so I can walk and move a little bit, because I won't be able to stand on my sofa,” he said in a Zoom media conference from his home.
It is a big, big game for us and it is a very frustrating thing to not be able to be there helping the team.
"I never experienced what I'm experiencing tomorrow, but it is what it is. It is not going to be easy to feel frustrated and with a lack of options because obviously I've not been in training sessions, not been able to prepare things like you want, to pass a message that you want, to have the players feeling that you are next to them.
"It's a different experience, but we have to adapt to it and we have tried to do that the best possible way to get well prepared."
Arsenal go into their match with the champions on the back of a five game winning run in all competitions. Arteta says he has full faith in Stuivenberg to keep their momentum going, but he says he will be doing everything he can to stay in touch with the former Wales coach.
"We had a really good connection, we have the same belief, we see the game in the same way, we share all of the values that we believe have to be installed at the club,” he said.
"He's someone who is very close to me and he's more than capable. He's done it before, so in that sense I'm very relaxed about it.
"We will be in touch, but as well I want to give them the possibility, the responsibility and the freedom to make decisions on the pitch, to express themselves, because it's completely different to be on that touchline and close to the players and the action than being at home.”
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