West Ham United Head Coach Julen Lopetegui is refusing to dwell on Monday night’s impressive 2-0 win over Newcastle United, and is instead fully focused on utilising the momentum generated to guide his side to victory at home to Arsenal this weekend.
The Hammers welcome the title-chasing Gunners to London Stadium on Saturday tea-time for what is set to be a thrilling Premier League contest, with both teams having shone on the pitch since the recent international break.
Goals from Tomáš Souček and Aaron Wan-Bissaka powered West Ham to their second away three-point haul of the 2024/25 campaign under the St James’ Park lights, lifting them to within four points of the top six.
Mikel Arteta’s north Londoners, meanwhile, got back underway in the top-flight with a convincing 3-0 triumph over Nottingham Forest last Saturday, before emphatically seeing off Sporting CP 5-1 in the UEFA Champions League in midweek.
Despite West Ham’s encouraging result on Tyneside, Lopetegui acknowledged the tough task at hand in this enticing encounter, against an outfit that narrowly missed out on the Premier League title in the last two seasons.
Indeed, while they are currently nine points adrift of first-placed Liverpool, they retain ambitions of claiming the coveted trophy for the first time in eleven years this term, and with the recent return of talismanic skipper Martin Ødegaard from injury, appear to be back on top form.
All signs point towards a thrilling clash in east London, then, and with little over 48 hours to go until kick-off, Lopetegui discussed the need to focus on each game individually, his managerial counterpart and his hopes of lighting up London Stadium.
Using momentum from Monday
We did well - we played well, and we got a good result. Despite there being lots of good things, we always work to improve, and that’s no different regardless of the result.
Always it’s important to win games, but I repeat that it is quickly in the past, and we have a lot of matches coming up in a quick space of time now, that we need to concentrate on and get as many points from as possible.
Looking long-term
We’re not thinking about where we are now; we’re focused on where we can be in a few months’ time. The end of the season is when we can talk about whether we’ve done well or not.
There is still a long way to go in the season, and we have to be ready for what is thrown at us. We want to compete in every match, and improve in every match.
Staying focused on the job
I don’t think about things I can’t control. Always I focus on the daily work of me, my players and the coaches, and on what we can add to become a better team, step-by-step.
I think that the team is improving, and we want that to continue going forward. It helps to keep improving but there’s never a guarantee in any game, so you have to build for each match and continue working to get better.
It is true that Monday was a good night for us, but it is in the past now, and I prefer to work in the present and look at the things we have coming up. We have to be ready for Arsenal on Saturday, because they have a brilliant team and coach, and they present many challenges.
Impressive Arteta
He was a big player in England, in particular, and now he is doing brilliantly as a coach. He’s putting across his ideas and his way to work, and you can see that clearly.
Coaches can have similar backgrounds, and he and I are both from the Basque Country, but each one is different. I think Mikel has shown his ability to do good things at a big, big club. He’s improved his team, and they are very dangerous in all areas.
We have to be ready to take on his team, because they are very strong, and they almost have two teams’ worth of top players. But, as always, we have to maintain the focus on ourselves.
Arsenal’s searing form
They put in a very good performance [against Sporting on Tuesday], for sure. But this is normal - they have a have a lot of ways to win, and they are a great team with great individual players.
I prefer not to talk about individuals, because they have so many they could name two teams. I would rather talk about what we can control, which is our players, our work and our strengths.
London Stadium roar
If there’s one thing we can be sure about, it’s that our fans will be there supporting us on Saturday, and giving us extra energy.
That sort of extra step can be the thing we as a team need to get to the next step, and hopefully we can do that and come out with a positive result.
