Arsenal news: Every word from Unai Emery's press conference - Aaron Ramsey transfer, Mesut Ozil & more

Arsenal manager Unai Emery faced the press on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the club’s Premier League match at home to Leicester on Monday night.

As expected, Emery was asked several questions about Aaron Ramsey’s future, with the Welshman seemingly no closer to agreeing a contract extension.

Emery also gave updates on several more of his players following the international break.

Here is everything he had to say.

“Good afternoon. The players are coming back now. Only Sokratis had one problem, one small injury. Maybe for Monday it’s difficult [for him to play]. The others are OK.”

“I prefer to play Saturday or Sunday. It [playing on Monday] has the advantage for more time to prepare the match - that’s one positive. After, we are going to play Thursday, we are going to play Sunday also, two matches very quickly after Leicester. For me it’s not an excuse because we are preparing for Monday.

“For us this match against Leicester has the same importance as the other matches, above all because I think the difficulty now is to not relax. After winning six games in the Premier League, we need to continue to be demanding in each match and think about the next match as the most important.”

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“For me January is very far [away]. I’m thinking about Monday’s match first. I want every player to stay OK, with the mentality to prepare, to play and [be] together to win.”

“It’s the same, my answer. My focus is on every match. The football, the future is tomorrow. My reason, I explain to every player and to you also, I want the mentality for the next match. Individual things are not for me to speak about now.”

“I want his performance like the other players. For example, in the last match he started on the bench, then he played 25 minutes with this performance. On Monday it’s the same if he starts in the first XI or on the bench, to come with the focus for this match to help us. It’s not different [than it is] for other players.”

“We need every player with a very big motivation every day in training and to continue improving and to continue helping us with his quality. It’s the same with Mesut. The motivation is very important for us. We want to find this motivation every day from every player.”

On if Aubameyang came back early from international duty…

“He didn’t play the last match [for Gabon]. Today he’s training with us like the other players who are working here. He played 45 minutes against the under-23s for us today. I think it’s good when he’s thinking also to play one match with the national team and then rest to stay better with us.”

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“I think we need to improve a lot. I think we have to continue doing a lot of the things to get better. Our demands need to be very high. The supporters can enjoy it with us but also we’re speaking with our reality every day. We need to improve because for example the match against Fulham was a very good result and a very good game for 90 minutes. But in the first 45 minutes I thought we needed to do better.

“If we are remembering the last match at the Emirates [against Watford], we won but not playing like we want, with the control against the opposition. For me now, the most important thing is not to rush. The next game against Leicester is very big, very difficult. Leicester are a very good team and play with a clear identity under Claude Puel. They are very competitive, have very good players and we need every single player, and our mentality together to be stronger than in the last match.”

“This is one process: to work every day and not the possibility to say now we have a winning mentality. We need to continue improving, continue creating in our way. The strong mentality is [to show] each minute, each ball, each moment of the 90 minutes to show every supporter we are deciding to win with our example on the pitch.

“We need to give every action with that mentality. This process is very hard, very long and this is the way to do it together. Also with the supporters, we are stronger with them helping us, like for example against Fulham and in every match at the Emirates.”

“Petr Cech is getting better from his injury but he’s not training with the group. But I think he’s very close to start with us.”

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“We need to continue working calmly in our bodies and our mentality. Our target now is the same as in the first matches. The first two matches we lost, against Manchester City and Chelsea. But after six matches winning in the Premier League, it hasn’t changed. [We need] this calm because we [beat] a lot of opposition teams with very [poor] performances. We need to stay with the best teams in the Premier League. To stay with them, we need to do better and get better at different things.”

“He’s a very good player. He has talent, his speed [helps] for the counter-press. On Monday we will not want to give him possibilities to continue scoring against us.”