Arteta on first home game of the restart: ‘We want to play at home’

In the lead up to Norwich, our head coach discussed returning to Emirates Stadium, Matteo Guendouzi, Mesut Ozil, William Saliba and more.
 
Read on for a full transcript from Arsenal:

Arsenal’s mid-week clash against Norwich will be the first game at home since Project Restart resumed games in the Premier League and it will be a surreal feeling for Arsenal fans.

We have seen highlights of two Arsenal friendlies at the Emirates and have had four away games in other’s stadiums, but somehow, it feels as though watching 90 minutes at The Emirates may hit a little harder. It will be great to see Arsenal back in action on familiar soil, but the absence of fans may mean more when they would have been our own.

“Well, we really want to play at home. That’s where we enjoy more, but obviously not having the fans within is a tremendous disadvantage.”

While it may not be an outright disadvantage over Norwich, there is sizable proof that the advantage of playing at home has gone out the window with the removal of fans. Ask Sheffield who has struggled to regain a semblance of their pre-lockdown selves without the urging boost of their fans.

“We want to give them happy moments and enjoyment and at the moment we cannot do that just by seeing them as they have been watching on TV. But it’s what we have at the moment.”

At the moment, this is all we have and it will have to do for the squad because despite not being there, every fan will be expecting another successful performance.

A loss would result in the remaining Premier League games feeling like a formality and a draw would only postpone that same inevitable fate. It’s 3 points or nothing from here on out for Arsenal.