Mikel Arteta wants to respond “collectively” to the threat represented by Harry Kane, a scorer he is as wary of as “the other ten” Bayern Munich players, the Arsenal coach said on Monday on the eve of the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League. “It’s not only him, but also the ten other people they have,” the Spaniard first responded at a press conference. “We know the individual qualities of these players, and him in particular. The best thing to do is to do what we usually do collectively.”
The former emblematic Tottenham striker returns to an Arsenal team that he used to scratch in the sultry North London derby, for which he holds the goals record (14 in 17 Premier League matches). The number of goals scored by the England captain in the last ten years is incredible. He can score in lots of different ways. He benefits from the help and players around him to provide him with opportunities. This is what we must try to avoid,” Arteta said.
Present before the media before his coach, Gabriel Jesus was also complimentary towards Kane, while pointing out the diffuse threat of the Bavarian attack. “Everyone here knows the quality of Harry Kane. For me, personally, he is the best finisher in the world,” said the Brazilian striker. “But it’s not just Harry Kane. They have players like my old friend Sane, Musiala, Coman, Müller – what a player! -, Gnabry,” he listed.
The Arsenal player warned his partners, current leaders in the Premier League standings, against any excess of confidence against Bayern Munich, beaten twice in quick succession in the Bundesliga and left behind in the title race behind Bayer Leverkusen ( the ranking of the German championship here). “Everyone knows the quality of this club, the incredible quality of its players and it doesn’t matter if they struggled in the last game, or the last two or three games. It’s still Bayern and they can hurt us,” he insists.
Same tone on Arteta’s side. “Football is such a competitive environment, it’s difficult to be consistent, it can happen to anyone,” he said. In any case, “we always expect the best from our opponents”. The former Spanish midfielder kicked in when a journalist asked him if he had asked his compatriot Xavi Alonso, Leverkusen coach, to find out how to beat the Bavarians. “Good question, but I won’t answer it!”, he retorted with a big smile.
