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Mikel Arteta has given a brash response to Liam Rosenior's claims that Arsenal showed a lack of grace in the warm-up for their Carabao Cup second-leg semi-final clash with Chelsea.
The Gunners' head coach delivered a press conference on Friday afternoon looking toward Saturday's Premier League clash with Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium. After issuing updates on team-news and player injuries, the Spaniard was then probed on his recent clash with Rosenior.
The Chelsea head coach was spotted angrily shouting to Arsenal players during Tuesday's cup tie, insisting that they stayed on their side of the pitch during the warm-up. Speaking about the issue following the 1-0 loss, which ultimately saw the Blues ousted from the competition 4-2 on aggregate, Rosenior said: "I've never asked my team or coaches to encroach on the opposition's territory.
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"In that moment, I didn't think it was right where they were operating, they were affecting our warm up. I asked them, maybe not politely, to make sure they stay in their half.
"I'm not here to have mind games, it's just what I think is right and respectful. Hopefully, we respect that and other teams do too."
He added that while he doesn't have an issue with anyone at Arsenal, he felt as though respect was not shown to his team in that moment. And now, Arteta has given his own take on the situation.
Speaking from Colney, the 43-year-old said: "I don't know, it's his opinion and obviously we respect everybody and at any point one of the staff members went through that, we apologise and that's it. It's very common in football, especially with the keepers because they have to keep long balls and all that, so nothing left to comment."
It comes as Arsenal are gearing up to face a soaring Sunderland side on home turf on Saturday afternoon, with hopes of expanding their lead in the race for the Premier League title. At the time of writing, Arsenal sit top of the standings in the English top flight, six points clear of Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.
Arteta has also given a positive update with regards to Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Max Dowman headed into this weekend's clash. While Saka and Odegaard were absent from the midweek Carabao Cup win, Arteta is hopeful that both men will be back in action soon.
Speaking about Saka, he said: "His hip is much better and hopefully very soon he will be with us," before adding on Odegaard and Timber: "Martin will be a matter of days and Jurrien is fine."
On teenage sensation Dowman, meanwhile, Arteta confirmed: "Max hasn't trained with us yet but it will be a few weeks, he's getting better."
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