Every word Mikel Arteta said on Brighton, Dowman, Harriman-Annous, changes and cup progression

Mikel Arteta faced the media following his side’s victory over Brighton in the fourth round of the League Cup.

The Spaniard was delighted to have witnessed such a changed team that featured several young Guns manage to beat a fellow Premier League side. It gave Arteta a chance to rest players before the weekend.

Arteta was full of praise for his young stars and those who came in for some rare minutes.

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Here is every word from the press conference as Arteta faced the media:

A great night for you and particularly the academy and the young players you've picked in the team.

A very special evening to be fair, very happy for various reasons. Obviously, we are in the quarter-finals, and we won the game against a really tough opponent. We made ten changes, we played players that never played together, yet we made two huge debuts for Max and Andre. That feeling of giving the opportunity to somebody and fulfilling a dream is unique, and I'm very happy that things turned out to be very positive, and we managed to win the game.

Andre Harriman-Annous, what do you like about him and how do you feel he did today?

Well since pre-season when he was with us I was very impressed with him. First of all his mentality, how much he wants it, that's the first ingredient. He's desperate to achieve his dream. I think he's been very consistent, training with us and constantly giving us the option to pick him. Today I believe it was the right day for him, for the context, for the way he's playing as well and he certainly proved that he's got a chance.

Yeah, Andre and Max coming through at the same time, Bukayo and Emile came through at the same time, Myles and Ethan came through at the same time. Is that a deliberate thing that you do?

No, no it's not. That's what it is and I'm very happy with both of them today. Myles as well, Ethan scoring a goal, Bukayo scoring a goal, so two academy graduates taking us to the quarter-finals. Again, it was a special emotional evening and until the next one, on Saturday.

I was just going to ask you about Max, how did he react when he heard that he was starting? Obviously there's a lot of noise around him, isn't there? Just how do you think that he dealt with it out there and just his performance?

A tiny smile, that's what you get with him. For him everything is natural, for him everything is okay, it's the way he plays. I think that's the secret, that he doesn't make a big fuss of it, he just does what he does best, which is to play football, to play football with a lot of courage and determination, and today again he's shown some incredible skill, some capacity to run past players at that level in the Premier League at 15. It's something definitely special.

With Max's mentality, is it now that he's started in this that he's thinking, I want to start in the Premier League, I want to start in the Champions League?

For sure, if you ask him, for sure. That's what we have to manage and not only that, there's a lot of things that are new in his life, we discussed that I think a few days ago. Make sure that he does the right steps, that he behaves and accepts because this is going to go this one, then he's going to play in a different team, and he needs to cope with all that because it's happening very, very fast, and we all need to be aware of that. Let's encourage him to keep going that way, but let's protect him as well.

Does it help when you've got Bukayo who's obviously been on that same journey and then someone like Martin [Odegaard] who was 15, 16 at Real Madrid, good to have those kind of role models around him?

Yeah, it does and the more senior ones as well. The thing is they believe that they're going to have a pathway. If they earn it, it doesn't matter how you're called, you're going to get a chance and they know that, they believe in that and they really want it which is the most important thing.

It was a positive result but a tough first half at times. I don't think anyone would have blamed you if you decided at half-time, okay, let's take Max off, let's take Andre off, I'll just protect them. So why didn't you? What did you see and thought, you know what they need to go through at this moment?

Because it wasn't nothing to do with them. It's some very sloppy giveaways that we did give in very dangerous areas, and we didn't apply two or three rules that we always have in second phases, for example, and we could have been punished, Kepa made a brilliant save. They missed another big chance, and it was more the feeling that we were a bit struggling, but to be fair, I expected that when you make ten changes and you put players that they never played before, some of them haven't played much as well, this season you have to gamble. But I was ready to take that risk and in the second half I thought, okay, we have to start the next 10-15 minutes in a different way. We certainly did that and I think the game shifted momentum.

Some say you've got the best defensive pair in the world in Saliba and Gabriel but Mosquera and Hincapie today pairing, they were pretty darn good.

Very good. I think those two are going to complement each other really, really well. Very happy with what I've seen. Again, they never played together, I think they trained two or three times together and that will keep improving but I'm very happy.

Ten changes tonight and you guys made it through. Do you think, especially first half, there were tricky moments in that period but the fact you've got through, do you think that reflects that across all the competitions this season that you guys have the depth to go far in all the competitions you play?

It's going to make us stronger because, again, as your colleague suggested, the easy thing maybe is to do some changes in that moment. I really believe in them and we could adjust a few things and be better, improve certain individuals with certain positions as well that I think was important. After that, now they have a good feeling that they can compete and beat a really good Premier League team.

Overall, we have a lot to learn. And what were your thoughts on Kepa? Of course, last season you had Neto who didn't play much, he was mostly in the bench. It seems that Kepa is level up and will push David?

He was really good today and I'm not surprised, I said it I think a few days ago. The way he behaves, trains, the way he's connected to the team at all times, he's going to prepare him for those moments and today he said something was ready.

Just a word on Ethan Nwaneri, he scored the opening goal, how important a moment would that be for him? I'm guessing he's probably not played as much as he would have liked.

Really good and he came on the other day as well and he's going to have those chances and when he has, he needs to make the most out of it. I think he took the goal really, really well. He had some actions, some of them they weren't that effective but what I like is that he kept trying and making risks and he didn't change that behaviour and determination to make things happen and at the end he got rewarded with a brilliant goal.

Just on squad depth, some of these young players going through the academy, how much can they give you an extra edge of your squad? You know that these are players on top of what you've got, you know the senior players as well.

Well, when we need them they are there and they are ready. Again, we have a lot of injured players in the front line so we could see we have the depth but we're struggling with some positions already and it's October. We're going to need them. It was a great test for them and I take a lot of learning from it.

You didn't make any changes at half-time, was it important that you gave the 11 who started a message that you really trust them, especially Max and Andre?

100 per cent and especially because it was nothing to do with them, if not it was something to do more with all the stuff that we could have done better and I think in the second half they continue. It's a shame that Andre didn't take the chance they had 1v1 because it would have been an incredible moment for him but overall very positive.

Ethan managed to get on the score sheet, it was clear you guys needed a spark in the second half to turn the tide. Was there any specific instructions you gave him?

To Ethan?

Yeah.

No, to all of them. We have to be very aggressive when we have the chance. They were going man to man as well, they were being very aggressive in our first phase and once we unlock that we're going to have a lot of spaces and we certainly exploited that much better in the second half.