Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal vs Brentford, Saliba, Havertz setback and Chelsea fallout

Every word from Mikel Arteta's pre-match Arsenal press conference ahead of the clash with Brentford

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of his Arsenal side’s Premier League clash with Brentford at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners will want to respond quickly to the dropped points at Chelsea on Sunday afternoon.

There were some positives in the return of Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus to the squad, who have joined Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke in rejoining the group. Further details were provided regarding William Saliba and Kai Havertz.

Declan Rice also won the SFA player of the year award which took focus in addition to Brentford themselves and their long throw weapon. In addition to further reflections from the draw at the Bridge.

Here is every word from Arteta’s pre-match press conference:

Let's start with some injury updates. William Saliba, what have you got for us?

I'm not going to be able to help you much today because we have another training session later on. Until that happens, we won't know what's going to happen with a few of the doubts that we have.

Did he have any testing yesterday though? What is the nature of his injury?

Yeah, he had a niggle but I think it's going to be a matter of days. So let's see if he's able to do that tomorrow. So a matter of days for William.

Leandro?

A matter of days as well.

A matter of days too. Kai Havertz?

A matter of weeks.

A matter of weeks?

I think so, yeah.

So do you think end of the month?

I don't know. Let's see how it works in the next few weeks. He's doing really well. He's doing stuff on the pitch but I think he needs some time.

And how's Gabi doing?

Who's Gabi? We have a lot.

The one on the treatment table right now. Big Gabi.

Big Gabi. Gabi's doing very well as well but that's weeks as well.

Let's focus on Brentford. It's a busy week, it's a busy period for you. Is this an opportunity to rotate the squad or is it a necessity to rotate the squad?

That's an opportunity tomorrow at 7.30pm. 7.30pm kick-off to be at the Emirates, bouncing and putting energy to win the game. That's the opportunity that we have tomorrow. 7.30pm. Like animals, everybody at the Emirates to go again and beat Brentford. That's the opportunity.

So you see this Brentford game as...

Vital. Massive.

In a busy week, is that a challenge for you as a coach to make sure players are motivated knowing that what you've got to come, Saturday lunchtime, then back to Champions League the week after?

No, because our motivation comes from preparation and how we prepare for every game to try to be better than the opposition. And where we are in the league and what we are doing, I don't think we need any more motivation than that.

It's a vital fixture, but I talked about rotation. We've seen a lot of minutes for Declan Rice having a really busy week, a full-on week. Jurrien Timber, exactly the same. Are they the sort of players that potentially you could rest them a little bit against Brentford?

We try to manage every case, every individual, in relation to how they feel in the context of the matches. But just with the only purpose to have the best options on the pitch and to come to be better than the opponent, that's it.

Opportunity for Ben White tomorrow?

Opportunity for everybody, as I said.

Let's talk about Brentford and their physicality. Physicality seems to have been maybe a bit more of a challenge for your side this year when we think about Stadium of Light and something on the very physical side, certainly what happened at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. How prepared are you for the challenge that Brentford will offer, particularly that incredibly long throw of Michael Kayode?

Well, that physicality comes from different areas in relation to the pitch, but I think every game that we play, when you look at the intensity in the Premier League against any opponent, what is needed is... It is incredible, and Brentford brings different threats, different challenges, as we all know, and we need to dominate that if we want to win the game.

Daniel Farke had some comments after his game against Manchester City about Donnarumma holding the ball, going down injured, taking a couple of minutes out of the game while Pep Guardiola was giving instructions on the sideline. He felt like it wasn't something that he likes to see. What's your opinion? Are we seeing that more, and not necessarily just from goalkeepers, but from outfield players going down at certain times of the game to kill time and maybe take the momentum out of games? Are we seeing it more, and is it something that maybe we should look at eradicating from the game in some way possible?

The game evolves, the rules evolve, and that's going to be constant. You look in the Premier League now, how many minutes are we playing? Actually, the effective time that we are playing, the effective time that we played on Sunday, there is a lot of things to look at and evolve. So that's an example, but there are many others that constantly the game and the rules have to be evolving because everybody tries to take an edge.

Can you understand the frustration, though?

Yeah, especially when you are on the other side.

Declan Rice won the FSA Men's Player of the Year Award voted by the supporters across the UK. I can imagine when Declan joined just over two years ago, you had certain expectations of him. How much did he exceed those expectations?

I think he's very close to what we believed he could bring to the club, to the team, and the way he could grow personally as well. I think he fully deserves it.

I think he's been incredibly consistent throughout the last two years, last season again. Again, in big matches, in big moments, he's stepping up, which is a massive thing. You want to fulfil that role in a big club, and I'm delighted that he got it.

Can I ask you about another, Mikel Merino? When he joined Arsenal, he already played over 200 games in La Liga, won the Euros with Spain, a well-established midfielder. In your wildest dreams, did you ever imagine he'll become such a good striker? And as a manager as well, how much flexibility is he giving you?

Yes, a striker certainly not. But that's the thing as well, that you learn when you sign a player. I knew that he could offer much more than what he had, and especially after I met him for the first time, because a player that has that amount of curiosity and the amount of questions that he has, how willing he is to learn constantly, the way he loves his profession and football, it's difficult to put limits to that, because when someone wants to grow every single day, is that determined, that hungry to win and evolve and to be part of something? That's very powerful, and Mikel certainly has that.

Can I please ask you about Christian Norgaard? The last time Brentford managed to beat Arsenal, he scored the second goal. What made you decide that Christian is the right fit for Arsenal, and what are the chances of him being involved more against his former side?

Well, what I saw on the pitch, and then everything that I heard about him as a leader, and the role that he can fulfil, and the role that he was going to have here, and the moment I picked up the phone and spoke to him, he was super excited to join us.

He brings something that we don't have in the squad, and I'm very happy to have him.

On goalkeepers, you've been speaking about evolution regarding rules around goalkeepers. Your goalkeeper you brought in over two years ago now is approaching 100 Premier League games. Not a bad goalkeeper.

He's an amazing goalkeeper, and it's a great story as well, and how it happened, because as well we tried to sign David much earlier, I think it was as soon as I arrived, almost, and he had to wait for another two years, and the start that he had, and the journey that we had together, I think he’s been phenomenal for us, and I'm very happy to have him.

You'll be playing against an old team tomorrow. In terms of signings you've made, because you've spent £100million on Declan Rice, a lot of money on other players. Pound for pound, is he the best signing you've made?

Very difficult question to answer, but he's certainly one that is taking us to a different level, and he's certainly a player that has brought something different to our way of playing.

Both teams like to score from set pieces. Does that mean that we're not going to see too many goals played tomorrow?

I don't know. But I don't know what team in the Premier League doesn't like to score from set pieces.

You see that as a badge of honour then, rather than a criticism?

Well, we just conceded a goal against Chelsea on a set piece, and they scored seven corners, we scored eight. I think we should all be set-piece teams, because we always score and concede from set pieces, unfortunately.

Finally, just quickly about the fans, you said to make sure they're there on time for the game against Brentford.

Before the game, not on time.

Oh, before the game, absolutely. A lot of managers this week have had to answer questions about maybe their fans being a bit more positive towards their team. Your fans at the moment are just ultra-positive towards your team. They couldn't be any more positive, could they?

Yeah, you can always be more, and especially when you play a different type of game, that's why you have to lift the standards and the team first, and ourselves as well, with the way we're going to play tomorrow, to lift everybody and make sure that we produce the same energy, atmosphere and positivity around the place.

First, I'll ask you about the injuries. You got Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus back into the squad on Sunday, but at the same time, you lost William Saliba, kind of been a theme of the season, key players picking up injuries. How frustrating has that been for you throughout the season so far?

Yeah, especially how we lost them with Leo as well, because Leo was in a great moment, and Gabi Martinelli was just coming back, and we had to manage his minutes. He wasn't able to play more than what he did on Sunday. So managing that, the fact that obviously Willy [Saliba] trained the day before, and then he wasn't comfortable. Players not training in certain positions, having to play there.

But again, the attitude towards it and the way the players are performing and giving absolutely everything they can to fulfil those absences has been the key of the season, because we have to deal with a lot already.

And last season, those injury problems were probably the worst you've experienced, in your managerial career. Did that prepare you for this season? Obviously, you have better squad depth, but what you learned last season, has that helped you to get through this tricky period?

Yes, because this season has been worse in some areas, especially in the front line, and now what's happening with the back line. We learned, and we were able to put together a squad that is much more reliable and has more options. We learned from the past as well that we have to use players in different positions, and they have to be able to fulfil different roles if we want to compete at this level. And the example of Mikel I was discussing before is just the best one, probably.

Just on Kai. Julian Nagelsmann said a few weeks ago that he'd suffered a setback. Is that why he's not going to be back until possibly January? Is that what the issue is?

Yes, so he was doing everything. He could not go to the next level and now it's looking like we have unlocked that. We're all desperate to have him. I mean, it's a player that, personally, I love so much for what he brings to the team, but his character, his personality, I see him suffer being outside. His playing a record is phenomenal, he's been always available and I can't wait to have him back around the team playing because I think it's going to be a massive boost for the team.

And just on Declan, when he joined, you described him as a lighthouse. I just wonder how you've been describing that, and also, you made a big point the past six months tying down all these key players, Gabriel, Saliba, Ethan, and Myles. Is he someone else on your list that you're looking at and thinking, I'd like to tie him down for five or six years?

That's the way I perceived him, that he could potentially be a lighthouse [a focal point]. And now he's become a lighthouse, which is very difficult to do at a big club like Arsenal, but he fully deserves that. He's done it with every step of the way, first of all, behaving, acting, and with performance and attitude that are at the highest level. And yeah, he's one that I'm sure, myself for sure, the club for sure, I'm going to have him here for many years.

You described the Chelsea game as a learning match with the wins over Bayern and Spurs, or you could almost describe the week as a learning week. And I'm curious what lessons you did learn from a week of really tough games where you nearly got three wins from three and came very close.

Well, starting from Spurs, I learned because I learned a lot as well about the international break again and what happened. For example, what happened with Gabi and how can we correct that and never happen again.

Then we played a team, a game, in a way that, again, we have to learn. And watching them, you always learn from it. Bayern Munich brought different qualities, players that you don't see weekly, but we need the potential of it.

And obviously, what they were doing, we took a lot from them. And the last weekend, the same. And the amount of games that you have to play within a game and what happened at Stamford Bridge, in that sense, it's enormous because something is the perception of what happened and after it's actually what happened and why it happened. So it was a huge learning.

And it was touched on earlier, but the aggressiveness that Chelsea showed on Sunday, it was similar. It was compared almost to the aggressiveness that Sunderland also showed in their game. Two games where Arsenal did drop points. I think teams are going to look at that and see a blueprint. Maybe if we're aggressive, we can maybe get something from Arsenal. So how do you have to cope with perhaps the future aggressiveness that you might face from other teams?

I think every team in the Premier League, the first thing that they do is be aggressive. I mean, I don't think that's going to be something that teams are going to change at all. You take it to certain extremes. Hopefully, that will be looked after, like it should have been in the first action of the game on the kick-off with Mosquera. But we have to deal, again, learn from it and use it in a better way because we should have explored what we had for a period of time. It wasn't 60 minutes long because from 33 to 39, we didn't play.

And then it was Piero another player on the floor and the next four minutes, we didn't play. So almost a part of the second half.

I think around this time last year, you mentioned with all these games around the festive period, it's kind of hard to even get training sessions regularly. And I was just wondering, in those periods, do you have to alter the way you prepare for games and how does that work? Do you have to focus on something that's maybe a bit more mental than physical? And how do you kind of work around that?

Yeah, there is a balance to it, obviously. And depending, sometimes we play three days after, sometimes four days after. Obviously, the schedule brings now a scenario that is three on three. So, yeah, we are used to it. We alter the preparation, probably in the physical part a little bit more, but just rely much more on principles and what we have to do and then tweak what we have to do in relation as well to the opponent's strength and weaknesses.

You spoke about sequences as well, sequences of games and how you can kind of build consistency with, I guess, different types of formations and stuff like that. Is that something you can see in terms of kind of seeing games as blocks and kind of mapping it out like that?

Yeah, sometimes, yeah. Sometimes, no. Sometimes you play against a back four or teams that are very direct and don’t allow you [space], and want to take the game and everything to a restart or a set piece. Other teams, they are completely different.

We face, for a period of time, a lot of back fives and low blocks. Then this block of three games has been different. So, yeah, depending. Sometimes you are lucky. You say, okay, now for this period, this is going to help us for the next few games and sometimes you just have to alter the game again.

And just on Saliba, with his injuries this season, I think they've been quite random, it seems. Is that how you see it? Because I think with the Anfield one, it was a twisted ankle. And then how's this one come about? You mentioned he was uncomfortable in training.

Well, the ankle one, it was a really random and very unlucky action that kept him out for a few weeks. He tried at Anfield, he wasn't comfortable and he had to stay away. And this one as well, very bizarre. But hopefully it will be a matter of days.