Mikel Arteta’s one-word admission perfectly sums up Arsenal vs Man Utd rivalry

Mikel Arteta is preparing his Arsenal players for the huge clash with Manchester United

Mikel Arteta understands the “tension” and the history that defines an Arsenal vs Manchester United fixture.

The Gunners manager, as a young boy in Spain watching Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane battle, absorbed every facet of this iconic meeting of titans.

He admitted: “You could see the tension and the rivalry and those individual battles that were there as well, that make the game really, really special.

“Two massive clubs that they’ve been fighting at the highest level for so many years, and we want to try to have the best possible game to win it.”

While United might not be the force they once were, their victory over Manchester City, with a new manager bounce in full effect under interim boss Michael Carrick, has not gone unnoticed by Arteta.

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“Every game is different,” he said when asked how the Red Devils appear now compared to before Carrick’s arrival.

“At the end, the individuals are the ones that make the difference or the ones that make the game in a certain way, and we’re going to try to be ourselves, be very dominant like we always want to be.

“Impose the game that we want to play, and regardless of what we want to do, we want to take the game in the areas that are very good for us.

Arteta welcomed back both Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori to the squad for training on Thursday. It means now he has an entirely available senior squad, which has not been the case at any stage of the season so far.

This time last year, for matchweek 23, Arteta was without, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus.

The headache is very different in 2026, though Arteta would not describe it that way.

“These ones I wouldn’t honestly classify as headaches. I would classify them as an opportunity that we have to make the right call and decision.

“Then, obviously, it is managing the players that probably are going to feel disappointed, if they don’t play in the games that they feel they are the ones they have to play.

“But, so far, the energy and the way the boys have reacted to those decisions have been incredibly positive.

“We have to maintain that because that’s a very important thing for the rest of the season.”

The line-up has changed almost every week, which has made the side a far more unpredictable beast as a result, one that now Carrick must work out.

“Yes, I think that is always very positive,” Arteta said on how he can make it difficult for opposition coaches to predict his setup.

“But for the players as well, because that means they have to raise their standards in training to earn the right to play the next day.

“And the next day you don’t know how many minutes, because the moment we want to change the game, we are going to have options to do that.

“That is something that in the last few years, we have not had for different reasons. It is something that, once we have it, we have to make sure we use correctly to be a better team.”