Mikel Arteta said he will not take anything for granted when Arsenal host Dundalk in the Europa League on Thursday at the Emirates.
The Gunners will hope to bounce back to winning after losing by a lone goal to Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal will play at home after winning their Europa League opener away and Arteta don’t want to underrated the Irish club.
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Arteta in a pre-match interview with arsenalfc.com also did not rule out the possibility of an upset.
He was asked what he thinks Dundalk will bring to the game and the Spaniard said the Irish club is organized.
“We’ve got some Irish staff here and there are a lot of positive things about them.
“From what I’ve seen they’ve got a really determined coach that has found a really good cohesion with the team.
“You can see in every reaction when they are playing, how united they are.
“They’re really well organised, they make it really hard and they will be coming here with incredible passion.
“They’re underdogs and that will give them a lot of energy and I expect them to be at full gas tomorrow, trying to beat us here.
on the story behind the appointment of Dundalk manager, Filippo Giovagnoli Arteta response was;
“I think it’s a great story and linking different backgrounds and different countries into that history is a good one to hear.
” I watched a long interview with him because I wanted to know who he is, what he is trying to do and what he is trying to express to his players.
“This is where I found out what happened and straight away he said he could feel that the players believed in what they were doing, which is everything that a coach wants.
” I think they have created a really good chemistry that has given them a big boost from last season.
“Big merit to them for the work that they are doing.”
on the chances of an upset tomorrow that Dundalk could pull, he said anything can happen in football.
“I don’t know.
“This is football and I’ve seen a lot of things in this game, so I don’t take anything for granted.
“I always expect the opponent to be at their best.
“After that I try to convince my players what we have to do to win the game and execute it in the best possible way.
“That’s it and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The former Arsenal midfielder talked about the strength of his and weaknesses of their opponent.
“As I’ve said, their strengths are the unity of the team and how hard they work together and how well they are organised.
“There are a few bits where they look really dangerous in certain contexts.
” Against us in certain situations it’s a little more complicated, but yes, if you allow any team time and space, they will create issues.
“They’re really strong on set-pieces as well and I’m sure they will have prepared them for tomorrow, so we will have to control the normal aspects we do every week.”