After an impressive display and draw eventually gained with 10 men at Old Trafford on 10 October, Roberto De Zerbi took the players to Spain not just to train, but ‘to become a stronger group’, later explaining: “I believe in football you need a group, you need the relationships, the connection.”
Since then, we’ve reeled off three wins on the trot in the Premier League against Coventry City, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
Mateus spoke about Marbella after his midfield masterclass at Stamford Bridge and Archie referenced it again after opening the scoring in a dominant display against a Palace side down to 10 men after 13 minutes – Archie and Jan Paul van Hecke delivering the goals as we racked up 34 efforts at goal.
Q1 | How much are the team enjoying this run that we're on at the moment?
Archie: “It's a really important time for us. I think we've improved so much over the last couple of weeks. I think we're more of a team, more together. We're just performing better because we work for each other on the pitch.”
Q2 | Where does that stem from, that togetherness?
Archie: “The Marbella trip would have obviously helped, just getting to know each other better and being like almost brothers on the pitch. That's the thing the gaffer speaks about all the time and that's what we've been trying to do. The last few games, we've been doing that.”
Q3 | How nice was it to be able to contribute to a dominant home win – knowing you’ve played your part?
Archie: “It was a really good feeling, especially with them having a man sent off. It’s even more difficult to break them down because they want to defend more. It's just really important to get three wins on the bounce. It hasn't happened for quite a long time.”
Q4 | Tell us about your celebration - was something planned?
Archie: “No, I just peeled off like Alan Shearer! I'm a bit old-fashioned. I don't really think of celebrations or anything like that - nothing comes into my head! I actually asked Madders, ‘what do I do for my celebration?’ and he was like, ‘I don't even know’. I didn't do anything. I just put my finger up and ran off!”
Q5 | Just finally, can you give us an idea of the confidence in the group at the moment? It feels like we've got real momentum right now?
Archie: “Yeah, definitely. Like I said, we're just more of a team. We’re all like brothers. We all get on really well and you can see that out there on the pitch, even with the celebrations, all the subs running over to the players and everything like that. It's those little things that mean so much to us as players and I think that's the most important thing.”