‘Keep Building Up’ – Cooper’s Pre-Arsenal Thoughts
Leicester travel to north London on Saturday for a meeting with Arsenal, a team equipped to challenge right at the top end of the division, boasting an unbeaten record to date in 2024/25.
Ahead of the trip to Emirates Stadium, Cooper sat down with journalists to discuss how he plans to turn the tide in the Foxes’ favour, following a tricky opening five fixtures of the season…
‘A brilliant opportunity’
Adapting to the rigours of Premier League football is never easy and Cooper explained how it is still an ongoing process for City, who head into matchday six on three points, searching for a first win of the league campaign.
“For Arsenal at the weekend, in terms of our work ethic and application, every time we speak to the players, their attitude and engagement is brilliant every day,” the Welshman commented from LCFC Training Ground. “We’ve just got to try and keep building, because that’s what we’re trying to do, to get the performances that we want.
“I’ve never been more determined to do well, it’s what you want to do. Supporters pay a lot of money and I’m motivated to improve. When things aren’t going well, I’ll take personal responsibility and try to change that.
“It’s very rarely plain sailing for a newly promoted team and just be comfortable throughout the season. Everything about the Club is Premier League and we’re back here now but we are still coming off the back of a Championship season.
“We’re transitioning to being a competitive Premier League team again. That’s the challenge we accept. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy but me and the staff really enjoy our work and being at the Club. We’re really proud to be part of it.
“We have to make people happy and be proud of the team and excited by it. I take that responsibility very seriously. It’s a brilliant opportunity to show how good we can be and how strong we are as characters and how together we are. We’ve got to try and continue on that path while also getting the results that we need.”
‘This is the level’
Although analysing Arsenal closely in the last few days, Cooper’s focus remains with his own squad and the approach they are taking to combat Mikel Arteta’s side this weekend, facing the challenge head on.
The 44-year-old explained: “Even if our results and points had been different, we’re coming up against an incredible team who have been in great form and for a number of years have been challenging for Premier Leagues and cup competitions. In other seasons, they would have won the league.
“It’s a really tough opponent, in their home as well, but it’s these games that you have really got to embrace. You’ve got to go there with the anticipation of succeeding and not fearing failure; that’ll be our approach. It couldn’t be a better time to get the result that we’re all craving for. We want to go for it.
“Our focus is on us and we’ve got to do everything really well. Every part of our game has got to be right, with and without the ball, the game management, the set pieces, there’s no doubt about that. That includes the mentality and the belief. We’ve got to believe in ourselves.
“They’ve scored some very important goals from set pieces this year. We need to be very mindful of that and what Arsenal’s strengths are. They’ve got a lot of them but we’ve got to back ourselves to be able to deal with that and have the impact in the game that we want with our play as well.
“This is the level we want to be at and these are the games that we want to be playing in. But we want to be playing with the right mentality and attitude with the ambition of being able to succeed.”
‘An intention to achieve’
While the Gunners will be favourites ahead of kick-off, Cooper knows that City, sitting 15th in the early standings at present, must put that to one side once they cross the white line.
The Manager added: “These teams are well-oiled machines that have been put together with great investment and great infrastructure and when you come up against them they are really tough games, there’s no doubt. But you can win these games, of course. We’ve seen it many times before.
“If you look at the league table so far after only a handful of games, there’s a big chunk of teams one or two points away from each other or a result away from changing good or bad.
“We’re not going into any game seeing it as a free hit or a bonus game. I can’t think of anything worse than that. We’re absolutely committed to this game even though the odds will be against us and the expectations will be what they are. We’re going to get the right result.
“You can’t go thinking that because they are near the top of the league let’s just get through it, you’ve got to with the intention that you can really achieve in the game. We want to do that at the weekend. We’d love to go to Arsenal and get a result and we’ve got to back ourselves to do that.”