Mikel Arteta has said he knew within 10 seconds of speaking to Raheem Sterling that he was the right signing for Arsenal and warned that the winger has a point to prove as he looks to revitalise his career.
Arsenal travel to Tottenham for Sunday’s north London derby with uncertainty over their starting lineup after captain Martin Ødegaard and Riccardo Calafiori both picked up injuries during the international break.
Sources have told ESPN that the pair are likely to miss Sunday’s game but Arteta refused to rule both players out as Ødegaard undergoes further examinations on an ankle problem and Calafiori battles a calf injury.
While Declan Rice is also suspended, one player whose availability is unquestioned is Sterling, who joined Arsenal on a season-long loan deadline day from Chelsea in a move which only surfaced in the final few hours of the window.
Sterling was omitted from interim boss Lee Carsley’s England squad and has therefore had almost two weeks acclimatising to his new surroundings at Arsenal’s London Colney training base.
“He looks great. He’s got a lot of energy, a smile on his face and he’s at it. He wants to prove a point and when someone’s got that in his belly you sense it straight away,” Arteta said at a news conference on Friday.
“Obviously I don’t need to know anything else about his quality and what he can bring to the team.
“In his personal life a lot of things have changed but with the player I was really surprised. The first call I had with him I knew in the first ten seconds we have to bring him because he really wanted it.
“That was my only question mark: ‘what stage is he at in his career?’ [But] after 10 seconds, I knew already before the next questions that we needed him here.
“What I see is hunger. He’s a player that wants to play every minute of every game. When that’s not the case, he’s not happy. He wants to play every single day and I see that.
“His commitment and the level of energy that he’s bringing to the team is a big boost. You can feel it walking through the door. We are better with him. He’s going to make us better.”
Arteta signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract on Thursday which ties him to the club until 2027.
Asked if there was another job he would have left for, Arteta said: “No, the emotional attachment that I have, that my family and kids have, the experience that I have with the people is too strong.
“We are in the right direction and we have made some huge steps. We have a lot still to make and I sense that hunger from the ownership to the board to all the players and all the staff here. This is the aim and the objective.”