 Hi Gary, how are you doing? Yeah, good, thank you. Good. Can you start by giving a bit of an injury update from Saturday Marcus Tavernier? Yes, so Tavern won't be available again this weekend, or have we got two more games for the international break? Hopefully he'll play a part in those, but not confirmed obviously either. Yeah, slight hamstring issue that we're hoping isn't, well that isn't too serious but we're hoping we can get him back as quickly as possible. And what about some of your longer term guys, Lloyd Kelly? Lloyd is closer, on the grass today, Lewis Cook's back involved, which is good. Lew will join the squad, big positive for everybody. Ilya Zabani's back out running, doing some good work but won't be involved this weekend. Yeah, the rest is fairly similar. You talked about David Brooks the other day, is he closer? Yeah, yeah he is, he is close, we've got a little bit to do, maybe try and get him some time on the pitch in bigger areas and stuff, he's trained well this week in and around the lads. But yeah, there's a few little bits that we need to just tick off our final hurdles to make sure we get over before he's back involved but hopefully very, very soon. For the Manchester City game, I think you picked up five points in four games. How do you look back on that now? Is it a bit of a momentum stopper for you or can you pick things up? No, I think the Manchester City game was a really good effort, I thought. Obviously we made some mistakes in it which you can't do against top opposition but from a performance and carrying out a game plan point of view and being aggressive against one of the best teams in the world, I thought we gave ourselves a chance in the game. And then the results before obviously four from Newcastle and Wolves is a good return to especially Wolves away, Newcastle at home, tough games so yeah, four points but we start again this Saturday with a tough game at Arsenal and we hope to take something from that as well. And how do you view Arsenal, is it a tougher challenge than Manchester City, is it as tough? You're playing the top two back to back, it's a huge challenge for you. It is yes, the toughest place to go, no doubt at the moment they're a fantastic side, top of the league, going to their place as well so yes, it's the toughest test you can face at this moment but we go there with ways that we feel we can cause them a problem. The intensity they show and how aggressive they are without the ball and how good they are with the ball, they're a very, very good side and having watched them a lot this week, no surprise that they are where they are and that they're clear at the top so they'll be difficult to catch I'm sure but from our point of view we go there, we try to be well organised, we stick to our plan and we use ways that we feel we can hurt them. You say it's no surprise, did you honestly expect them to do as well as they have done this season? I think at the start of the season nobody really knew, I think the performance they put on here earlier in the season, extremely dominant and looked like a side that could be up and around the top of the league and I've only really watched them up until this week when it's my job to prep for them, I've only really watched them on TV and so when you prepare for Manchester City you sort of know that they're going to be a top side because they've been at the top for years and only this week have I looked into it and found that Arsenal are very, very good, very well organised, detailed their work, how good they are with the ball, their movements, the connection with the fans, the atmosphere at the Emirates at the moment, the intensity so it'll be a good test, boys are looking forward to it and not one that we go just to look to take part in so really important for us obviously at this stage of the season, any stage of the season that we go there and we're really clear on what we're trying to retrieve, we need to leave their points. And as a fellow young manager what have you made of the job that Miquel Arteta is doing? A lot of expectations on him now, a lot of pressure, he doesn't seem to be cracking, are you admiring of the way he's handling it? Yeah I haven't seen too closely, I've seen his team this week a lot so yeah I'm very impressed with what he's done to his team, I don't know too much about his pressures or how he's handling them but the team are performing very very well, he's done a fantastic job, very impressive obviously big job to get so early on, they maybe, I don't think they started too well if I remember rightly when he first went in there was maybe a few questions being asked so to have turned it around and to have the team in the place that he has them at the moment very very impressive so yeah he's done an excellent job. He said today in an interview he doesn't change his clothes when he's on a winning run, have you got any superstitions like that? No I haven't, I'm not superstitious at all so yeah maybe just don't go too close to Miquel if he hasn't changed his clothes for a while. But yeah, looking forward to it I mean funnily enough I was in the same place on holidays Miquel in the winter break when I was having a break so yeah we ended up in the same hotel funnily enough but yeah we didn't chat too much just bump into each other a couple of times so yeah looking forward to tomorrow, big game for us but they all will be from this moment on so yeah looking forward to it. Did you ever play against Miquel? Yeah I think I did and I'm not sure how many times but yeah he was a good player, strong, technically very good so had a good playing career as well so it was intelligent on the pitch as well you can generally tell in the way that they play that they're going to go on to be managers and things you can say they have a real tactical awareness of what's going on around them so not always the case but with Miquel that was definitely the case. And what have you made of the way some of their younger players really seem to have stepped up this season and Ketya, Martin, Ellie have you been impressed by what they do? Yeah I think yeah very good players of course Martin, Ellie yeah has been excellent hasn't he's played majority of matches if not all their matches yeah it's a threat of his pace obviously and Ketya has come in since they lost Jé Zeus and yeah it's done very very well they use Trossard as well a little bit at the moment as a nine so yeah they still have options of course very very strong squad back four have been impressive as well not too many changes in the back four very often manages to name a real settled side and yeah they have a good defensive record. Managers sometimes talk about free hits which is an odd phrase when every point matters is this a free hit? Definitely not no no the Man City game wasn't this one isn't yeah I don't don't see any game as a free hit so three points available we'll do our best to get them. And what will it take for you to win then? Yeah a big effort from everybody of course so against Manchester City we made a couple of errors that you can't afford to make so we need to be better at that make sure that we don't give anything silly away make sure we don't make mistakes that that cost ourselves and then stick to the game plan be real diligent in what we do and try and hurt them when we get our opportunities be clinical so yeah that usual stuff that you need but of course the the level of opponent means that our level needs to be as as high as it can be. Just lastly from me how do you view the situation at the bottom more broadly Gary you look at the the fixtures you look at who's down there I think there's only nine points separating nine clubs do you see all those involved in in a possible relegation battle? Honestly I don't know the exact detail of the league table um I don't yeah I couldn't tell you who was above us or just above us or so yeah fully focused on the on the game on Saturday trying to get three points I'm sure as we come nearer the end of the season and hopefully we're a bit further up the table by then but I'll probably look at it slightly more as it becomes more relevant but yeah at this moment in time full focus on us and and what we need to do. Thanks Gary. Gary the the underdog mentality is that something you look to see John I'd talk to you as underdogs in terms of the league table obviously and the form maybe of each team is that something you look to I guess put into your players to say no one's expecting us to go and get anything harsh not to worry? Um no yeah I don't use it too much I think you could feel it a little bit in the atmosphere in the Manchester City game I thought there was a real backing from the fans because they could see that the the boys were having a real go against the good side so you could feel it um but yeah no not not from me really I'm very clear with them I expect us to be competitive in every game so our arsenal a good side yeah they are can they cause you problems yeah they definitely can but we're in the same league as them so um we go there tomorrow and we give it our best go and I expect us to to cause them some problems and I expect us to be able to deal with situations that they throw our way and um as I always say we'll yeah see how we go except the consequences after dust ourselves down and get ready for the next one. From what you saw against City last week what do you see in your squad now that puts you in much better stead to get things from these games maybe compared to what you had available when you played United over Christmas top them early in the season Liverpool obviously before you took charge the squad seems to be in a much better place to be really competitive in these games. Yeah injuries are still a big problem for us unfortunately something that we haven't really been able to shake last yeah last few months or a few weeks however long it's been um still have key players missing which is yeah that does damage of course to to what you can produce week in week out so um be massive to to get as many and then back as we can and make sure we keep the ones that we've got fit fit um but yeah the squad is deeper and and has more quality in it no doubt and it did before January so um let's let's if we'd have had seven injuries at times in December or whenever it was we would have been really really short now if we do get that many at least we have we have enough to make sure we can still try and be competitive but um still equally as important that people like Tav, Lloyd Kelly, Mattias Vigna, Ilya, yeah Louis Cook coming back people like that it's just even Bruxy like having these people backing in around it just makes such a huge difference to to what you're able to the level you're able to perform at so yeah can't underestimate how important it is that we we get the boys back fit and keep them there. And is there a particular I guess target to to go on against early goals unfortunately one went in early last week in some of the bigger games this season you've conceded quite early you've tuned them down to Aston after six minutes earlier in the season I know you weren't in charge um is that something in these kind of games again that you're really pushing the emphasis on? Yeah yeah always always you don't want to concede early goals you don't want to concede late goals and you don't really want to concede goals in the middle um so yeah but early ones obviously may have an impact on how the place feels um I thought if we look at the Manchester City game the goals sort of govern or change how everyone sees the game so if you go if you look in depth look at the two Manchester City games we played this season we didn't lay a glove on them up there numbers were didn't have hardly any shots um the home game we had 13 shots against them the most have conceded this season by none um we had 11 inside their penalty area the most have conceded this season uh we had the second most regains in their attacking third only newcastle regained the ball of them more than we did um so there was there was a lot in there that was very very good and aggressive and front foot um but the fact that you've given an early goal away and then they managed to find a bit of quality to find the second one the cross from Gundawang on his weak foot on the half volley it's like top quality stuff that can go against you um makes it feel like it wasn't quite as good as as it as the numbers would suggest so cut out the silly errors um make sure performances stay like that and we'll we'll give ourselves a chance last one from me the Premier League audience in Africa we're obviously getting very excited about the increasing impact of Dango Watara but also Hamid Treore as well who in a slightly different position last week had had a big impact or as bigger impacts as you can in that kind of game um where have you been most impressed with Hamid Treore and what has he still got to work on particularly in this league yeah he's he's been very very good for us he's um obviously adapting um that I think the the speed and uh the the physicality of the Premier League will be different for him he's just um we went aggressively sort of almost toe to toe with Manchester City for for 90 minutes um so he wouldn't have played in too many games that were at the intensity that that did I don't think um he has shown a lot of quality um position-wise yeah in possession we generally find ourselves in a similar shape always he we try and get we try and have two number tens and he ends up being one of them generally with the ball um that didn't change um yeah he has quality he can he can create things he secures the ball in messy situations for us so he's um yeah he's been been a big positive over the last few weeks