Talking Heads: Leicester-Arsenal Thoughts From Rodgers, Arteta, Ricardo & Aubameyang
- Leicester City entertain Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday (12pm kick-off)
- The Foxes secured a 1-0 victory over the Gunners at Emirates Stadium in October
- Manager Brendan Rodgers and Ricardo Pereira have previewed the game this week
- For Arsenal, Mikel Arteta and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have also been on media duties
While the Foxes go into the clash having already beaten the Gunners this season, at Emirates Stadium in October, the north London outfit have a far superior historical head-to-head record, winning 67 times.
Ahead of Sunday's encounter, key figures from both dressing rooms have spoken in the media...
City manager Brendan Rodgers on his side's bid to challenge the league's bigger clubs: "If you're talking about the 'top six' in a financial sense, then we don't sit in that, that's for sure. If you're talking football, we've been in there on merit over these last couple of seasons. It just depends what you define it as. For us, from a football perspective, we've been challenging, we've been fighting, we've been competitive. We know the challenges with some of these huge clubs and great teams, but out aim is to have a mentality that can disrupt that and be competitive against it and that's all we've tried to be. We've shown a consistency in order to challenge that hierarchy."
Speaking to Arsenal Player, Gunners manager Mikel Arteta said: "They (Leicester) have been really consistent in the league. I think they've done a lot of good things, there's not any luck or anything like that in how they've developed as a team. Obviously they have a really good manager, a great coaching staff and they have made a lot of good decisions in the last few seasons. They have built a way of playing which is completely suited to their recruitment policy, and with a bit of time the quality that they had already in the team - plus some young talents that they have recruited and experienced players they already have - they have a really good mixture. I think they totally deserve the position they are in at the moment."
Portugal and Foxes full-back Ricardo Pereira speaks to LCFC TV earlier this week: I think it will be a great game. They have a good team, good players. They like to have the ball and they have players that can change the game quickly. We have to be careful with that, but at the same time, we have to show our quality and do our best. We play at home, so we have to impose our game. It will be a different game now against them at home, but we can remember what happened there. It was a nice win with the goal at the end. We looked confident in that game. Before we controlled the game, we were comfortable knowing that we would create chances and maybe win the game, and that’s what we did."
Arsenal and Gabon captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reflects on Arsenal's win over Benfica with arsenal.com: "It was a hard one, but at the end I think we deserved it because we showed great character tonight, all the team and the guys that came in as well. They gave so much for the comeback and we did it, so we are so happy! It’s hard because when you concede one, it’s okay, but then when you concede a second one, you know that you have to score two goals again, so it’s really hard, but as I said, we showed character and we kept calm during the whole match. We scored in the last minute and we are happy."