Every word Mikel Arteta said on Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal, team news, Declan Rice bust-up

Here is every word from Mikel Arteta’s press conference ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of his Arsenal side’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest. Manchester City will play before the Gunners. Arteta addressed the idea of how his side will avoid any distractions before their own game.

There were updates on the latest team news, and also a reaction to a question regarding Declan Rice and Albert Stuivenberg and the pair’s videoed verbal clash in the tunnel at Stamford Bridge. He discussed what has surprised him most about the season and how his newfound depth has transformed the side.

Sean Dyche and Nottingham Forest have both been difficult adversaries for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta. However, the explanation from the Spaniard on why that is the case brought about a simple answer, perhaps unsurprisingly.

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Here is every word that Mikel Arteta said in his pre-match press conference:

Are there any fresh injury concerns from the game against Chelsea?

No.

And the players that have been missing out in Hincapie, Calafiori, Mosquera and Dowman, any chance for this weekend for those?

There might be, so I need to meet now with the medical staff. We have a training session now and see if somebody is available for the weekend.

You're not going to tell me who are you?

I cannot tell you, but I don't know.

I want to ask you about Viktor Gyokeres, Mikel. Massive goal in midweek. Can you just give us an insight into how he's been behind the scenes? Whether he's actually doubted himself and the kind of conversations you've had with him?

No, I haven't seen that. Obviously, he's a very demanding person. He knows the level that we need. And basically, he really wants to fulfil everything that we expect of him. He's been really trying, he's been very consistent and I thought that against Chelsea he had a great game and scored the goal that helped us to win the game.

When I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago and asked you about Viktor, you said he's going to have to get used to the scrutiny for the next five and a half years.

Well, for the rest of his career, I think if you know what he's done in the last few years, you just set the standards that everybody expects you to maintain.

Do you think the scrutiny and sometimes the criticism has been fair on him?

I don't know. It's part of the expectations, but it's not only for Viktor. It's for every number nine in the league or in every top club or in every position that you play. We expect to be really good, really consistent, and to win constantly, and that's what we have to try to do.

This is going to be the fourth game in 10 days. I could reel off a whole load of other stats about the number of games that you've been playing, but it's also the third of four in a row away from home. How big a challenge is that, and do you almost have to think two, three, four games in advance when you're thinking about your squad and maintaining the fitness of the squad?

Well, in certain things, yes, and especially looking at the opponents and the things that we're going to be able to train or we can replicate in those games. Sometimes, ideally, we want to plan, okay, for this game we think this player could be better, and the load, and sometimes it's just impossible, and you have to go game by game. We have more players back now, we have better options, and that's very helpful because obviously we've been giving game time to almost every player.

I guess the challenge is for you to try and keep these players happy as well. You always hear these stories when the former Manchester United players talk about Sir Alex Ferguson and when they're getting rested for a game, he says to them, no, I need you for this game and it makes them feel a million dollars. Is that something that you've adopted, that approach?

Well, I don't know the whole context of that, but the first thing is that as a team, we prepare the game and we win it. And then when you have rested players or manage the load, it's beautiful because you win. But when the result is different and it's a bad decision, you shouldn't have done that, it's too [many] changes.

So it's all related to how we can be performing at the highest level, win, why all those things are happening. That's the idea of the scenario, quite tricky.

Talking about tricky, Nottingham Forest, a team managed by Sean Dyche, tomorrow, what unique challenges does a team managed by Sean Dyche pose to you?

A top coach, really good at what he does. You can see straight away the finger sprints in the team, the way they play, the results that they got against some of the big teams as well, how difficult they are constantly making you so experienced in the league. So a very tough match.

Manchester City could, of course, cut the gap at the top because they play before you tomorrow. I know your full focus will be on Nottingham Forest, but do you have an eye on that game, given it's so close to your kick-off? And is it difficult to ensure the players are blocked away from what's happening at Old Trafford?

Yeah, we know that we can only focus on what we can do. When the games are earlier, you have the possibility to see them. Usually, they are later the same, nothing changes, but the only focus and the aim is to prepare for a very, very tough match, and we have experienced that over there, and we have to win it.

Just finally, you're fighting on four fronts, and I know your focus will always be just on the next game, but just generally, are you smelling a belief that maybe this squad, your players, can achieve something special, maybe something historic this season?

Well, I think we are building very good momentum and belief comes from performances and the level of consistency that we have shown throughout 32 games already this season and what we did yesterday at Stamford Bridge. It should help us to be very convinced that we have the ability to do that, but the reality is that you have to show it in every game and there's still so much to happen, but we are glad that we are still alive in the four competitions.

My colleague here asked you about Viktor Gyokeres, can I ask you about potentially another striker, Martin Zubimendi? [laughs] I mean, what a goal against Chelsea, wonderful goal and in general, how pleased have you been with Martin's offensive contribution?

Well, I'm very happy in the manner that he has settled at the club. When you talk to any member of the staff or player about him, he's a big smile on their face and something very positive for sure. Coming out of the mouth, I think he has earned the respect very, very quickly of everybody here, our supporters and the league in general and that's very difficult to do and he's done it because he's very humble, very focused, incredibly consistent and on top of that, he's surprising a few people with his ability as well to attack the opposition box.

You carry on leading the league in terms of scoring from set pieces, you've been doing it so well for so long, and when you're doing it so well, what's the biggest challenge of carrying on being creative in that department, carrying on having a disadvantage over your position?

I think in practice, there's no secret, I think mastering what you do, the same in many other aspects in the game, you can clearly see the tendency in the league, the amount of goals and games that are decided in that phase of play, it's not only us, it's more than any other team at any time in the history of this league. So, constantly adapt and evolve, that's the word.

City ground this weekend, it's a place you struggled at in the past. What's the biggest challenge of playing in that stadium, especially now under the vision of Sean Dyche?

Well, winning away from the Premier League is extremely tough and they are a team that they have built over the last few years, and they've done a lot of things right to build a really good team and I've shown they are different, very, very efficient in what they do, very clear identity and that's what makes them very dangerous.

Playing second after Man City played Manchester United at lunchtime, it's unlikely apart from when you play each other, you're going to play at the same time again this season, so do you have to get used to the pressure of either going first or going second?

Every season is normally the same, as we said, we don't normally play at the same time, only probably in the Champions League, which happens more often, but that's why more than ever, just focus on what you have to do, the task ahead, and that's it.

You're playing a team tomorrow who are fighting relegation, fighting for their lives, is that more difficult when you're playing a team that their ambition is just to stay in the league, whereas if you're playing a team towards the top, their ambition is to get into Europe or win the league, what is more difficult?

I don't know, it depends on the day what the game presents, but obviously when you're in that situation you certainly want to get out of that and you might have an extra edge, a value, but you want to win, the hunger to win as well and the motivation and the drive to do that is incredible as well, so every team will handle the emotional part in their way, we have to focus on what we do.

You've got a terrific defensive record, I was at Kenilworth Road not last November, but the November before, winning 4-3, Dec scored in the last seconds of the game, but that was the last time you conceded more than two goals in a game in the Premier League, how have you managed to maintain that with all the defensive changes you've had to make?

With the right level of organisation, but especially with the commitment they show every day and the commitment they show to all the duties that are necessary for us to be a team that is very difficult to play against and to score against.

How important is it that your team have good social skills? [Thomas Tuchel gave his thoughts on the topic].

I agree with Thomas, I think it's something incredibly necessary and many times undervalued and there are players that maybe in terms of minutes they don't have that much impact, but the impact that they have in and around the team to bring everybody together, to create that atmosphere, to support the team and to fulfil different roles in my opinion is critical.

So if I had good social skills but couldn't take a corner, I'd still get on your team?

Unfortunately, there are certain limits and certain things that have to be hit.

In the Chelsea game you brought on Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus together, I just found it interesting because you've done it before with Kai and Trossard playing as two nines together, what do you like when you bring on or start two nines together in their different characteristics?

Well what the game in my opinion was demanding as well because the spaces were opening up and what we needed from that position as well was somebody that could arrive in the box, could thread the position half if they were to start even more aggressive as well, somebody that in direct play as well could be very, very efficient and we have combinations of players that can alter positions as well, the chemistry between them and another weapon that we have.

Are those combinations you want to keep trying throughout the second half of the season?

Yes and especially with certain games that we're going to have in the next weeks as well, to have these options especially against certain kinds of behaviours that we expect from opponents can be something very interesting.

And to the point earlier on the four games in ten days and the squad, I was just thinking about Ethan Nwaneri, he played quite well at Portsmouth, is he someone who may be able to come back in after playing quite well?

They all have the option to play, we have to see for each game which ones, we have certain limitations especially in the league with the numbers that we can bring in the squad unfortunately but everybody has to be in contention.

You meticulously plan for everything in every single game and I just want to know what has surprised you most this season about your team?

I don't know, probably the capacity to adapt to certain unexpected things that happened and especially players having to play in positions that they haven't played before, not in the same area, especially and how we have adapted to that. I don't know if it's a surprise because I know how they would react, but actually to do it in the manner that they've done it with that attitude is something that I'm very proud of.

It's the most depth you've had having two or even three players for each position, you mentioned about the ability for players to play in different roles, has anything surprised you perhaps about how players have dealt with having more competition or less competition in certain roles?

Very positively and it's something that we took from the start of the season, if we want to have any chance of doing that we have to be there and I showed them the other clubs that we have nothing different to that. You look at Chelsea 2 and 3 and 4 or Man City or Liverpool or any team that has been in that challenge over the years so this is the nature. We want this, we really have to accept this because there's no other way they haven't done it with 14, 15 or 16 players, none of the clubs in the history in the last 10, 15 years. It's something that we want to be there, we have to do it and it has to be natural.

There's been a wider debate this week about offside in VAR, you might have seen Pep talking about it after the Newcastle game, just generally are you happy with the offside rule as it stands and the way the VAR interprets it?

Well, happy depends on the situation that you have to face really, that's honestly talking. I know they're trying to do everything they can to simplify it, to bring as much clarity as possible and sometimes it's still a very difficult decision to make. We need to understand that and I know on top of that there is a new possible rule coming up so we're not going to have any say so we'll adapt to what is coming.

Are you referring to what they're calling Wenger's Law, the daylight rule?

Well they are constantly trying to improve the game and to be as clear as possible, as consistent as possible so they are looking at options and they will decide and we will adapt.

Would you support that then?

I don't know, I need to see more detail about that.

There was a report of a disagreement between Declan and one of your coaching staff just during the half-time, just wondering if you could clear that up and whether there has been a making of...

All sorted, all good.

But when you see that, do you think it just shows how much the guys are really just desperate to win, is that why you get these sort of disagreements?

Yes, and the good thing is that by the time I found out the problem was resolved so that's very good.