Mikel Arteta faced the press after Arsenal’s vital victory over Brentford as football.london has every word from the press conference
Mikel Arteta spoke to the media following his Arsenal side’s important victory over Brentford at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners moved five points clear again at the top of the table ahead of a tricky weekend trip to Aston Villa.
There were some blows as both Cristhian Mosquera and Declan Rice left the field with problems. Ben White and Mikel Merino again came in for plenty of plaudits as Bukayo Saka won it from the bench.
Arteta was asked on all the above and provided the updates he had available. Here is every word the Gunners boss said after the victory:
You rested players, had some injuries, but won…
Rest, that’s quite a positive word to use. We had to make some changes. We had a very demanding week at every level. Emotionally, physically, what the game demanded. In the tactical and technical aspect of it, we were asked to play three days later, one less recovery than them. Still performing the way we’ve done it against a team that is super well-coached, very well-organised.
They are very clear how they want to generate big chances and they are really good at doing that. One-nil. We knew it wasn’t enough.
I don’t think we conceded anything apart from the save they had to make on the corner. But the game was always open, and we needed that extra energy to close it. Maybe when we didn’t have it, we had the courage to take the ball under pressure and to start to raise the pressure with very good movement and purpose with the ball to go and score the second goal and win the game.
Anything worrying about the players who came off?
Yes, obviously it’s never good news. Declan had to come off. We don’t know.
We have to see tomorrow what he’s got. And Mosquera is the other one that is out. Obviously we have big Gabi and Willy out as well. So we have to adapt. It’s been a theme of this season. But when I look at the players, they haven’t been playing much.
For example, Ben White, the performance that he had on Martin that he’s been out and he puts 96 minutes under his belt straight away. Noni, the same. Victor is coming and now he’s getting some minutes as well. So I’m very pleased to see that.
Just a word on Mikel Merino. He keeps showing that he can be an elegant striker as well.
He was immense again, I think, today. The way he scored the goal, super smart. His timing, the way he wins the possession and the execution.
But after his overall performance, with the ball, without the ball. I remember an action that he passed the ball to Martin in behind. Martin doesn’t chase it.
He makes 40 metres to chase it to the corner flag and goes back, wins the ball back. He’s everywhere, and he’s got that really good momentum at the moment, and he makes the team much better.
A big intake of breath from Arsenal fans when Declan went down and came off. He seemed to be moving alright at the end when he went back onto the pitch. There was a little bit of strapping maybe on his calf, his left calf. Can you give us any more insight?
Talking about fans and support, I asked them to be here at 7:30pm as they were earlier. So thank you so much to all of them for being with us because we needed that energy today.
He could not carry on playing, so we have to wait and see tomorrow what happens.
He’s moving alright.
Yeah, he can walk but he cannot play.
He’s played a lot of minutes, hasn’t he, for Arsenal and for England. So would it almost be a precaution anyway if he went down today?
The thing is he’s played a lot of minutes, but as well, when? Now we play Wednesday night and we have to play Saturday morning as well. So we can play minutes, but if they can please give us just a little bit more time to recover and to make the well-being of these players a little bit easier, that would be great.
There was a clean sheet for the first time since November 4th against Slavia Prague. Five goals conceded in those games since then. It was a big moment when you broke that record for clean sheets back in November. I guess now you want to start that record again, and it was important to keep a clean sheet for the first time.
Yeah, we talked about it. I think it was four games that we didn’t manage to do that for different reasons. We conceded from a set-piece against Chelsea and against Sunderland as well. The other ones are a little bit different. Today, we probably should have conceded a goal if it was not for David as well, and the save that he made. But I think apart from that we didn’t really concede that much.
What was the specifics of Mosquera injury, by the way? We weren’t exactly sure. Was it knee or ankle?
Yeah, we have to wait and see. It’s probably part of the knee or ankle, we don’t know. He could not really tell us exactly how it was but he wasn’t able to continue.
One of the things that’s really been apparent in the last few games is how he’s able to drop into midfield and create that box. Could you reflect on how he’s grown into this role and made playing as a centre-forward fit Mikel Merino?
I said it earlier in the press conference, it’s his curiosity and his will to learn. And probably his will to help the team. He knew that we had a major problem from the beginning of the season.
We lost Viktor, Kai was out and Gabriel Jesus was out. So we needed a solution. He did it last year really, really well. I think this season he’s probably taken it to another step because he’s able to do even more things. So I think the team is really grateful, and he’s enjoying it.
When you spoke about Ben White a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned he had to prove himself when the opportunity came to him. I’m guessing you feel he did tonight, but just how much have you missed him in this spell that he hasn’t been playing?
Personally, I think I’m very, very happy for him as a human being. I think the rest of the team is the same because he’s a player that played always for us. And sadly, because of the right reasons, he wasn’t playing that much because Jurrien was excellent and he was out for a while and then he needed to earn his place. But his attitude has been so positive, so good. And then when you are ready, and you give him the opportunity, you take it like he did today.
So I’m very happy that we have him back in the best version of himself as well. And we’re going to need him because he’s a tremendous player.
In terms of the 90 minutes today, how did you assess it? Because it felt at 1-0 when it seemed there were times where the players couldn’t get that second goal, and they maybe wanted to keep the one-goal lead when the game was getting open, and it seemed a bit tense. How did you feel about that?
Yeah, I think we had three big chances to put the second one. We didn’t do it. And then when we were going for the second one, the game became a little bit open.
We started to be a bit late in certain moments in the high press. They break it and the pitch is stretched. And then we needed to be a bit more compact.
But I think we went through that period really well when we started to take the ball and do what we had to do with the ball to bring the momentum down, bring the composure and the ball to the areas that we wanted to attract them and to use the open spaces that they left and score the second goal.
With Ben White, do you think there’s signs there that he’s potentially back to his best days? It’s against Olympiacos this October. He seemed to be just getting back to things where he’s tonight with the overlaps, especially with Madueke. He seemed like he’s overlapped Saka a few seasons ago. Did you see that?
No. The first thing is a defender defends and defends with that purpose and with that determination and efficiency. And he’s done that today. And then if he can add the value that he can add with the ball through his passing, through his movement and through the deliveries that he can put with the quality that he has, so be it. Today I think he’s done both very well.
And on Raya’s save, what do you make of that when he tips onto the crossbar?
I thought it was in… because they are so good at that as well. And yeah, it’s a big moment again.
Mikel, just on Merino again. I mean, his story is a little bit of an example for the players. Because the signings you made in the summer, maybe from the outside, made it look like he was going to struggle to get in the team. And yet here he is in December, arguably the most important player.
Yes, I think that’s a lesson. And I took that lesson because the whole summer I was thinking, if we bring a nine, what was going to happen with Gabi Jesus and Kai? And I had a lot of nines.
I just think that I like them so much as well. Okay, what are we going to do? How are we going to handle it? And so far we haven’t had a problem because they’ve been injured. So live the present, live the moment, and deal with the situation when it comes. That’s it.
Mikel, you mentioned the schedule you’ve got at the moment. Do you feel that’s what’s contributed to Declan’s injury tonight, and a number of the ones you’ve had?
Probably it’s not one thing, but we can help the players and everybody, the league and everybody, to do what we have to do. Give us another day, especially the teams that are playing so much in Europe. To everybody in general, I think we can do that because we’re going to benefit from that.
We’ve never had such a schedule at every level, not only in the Premier League, but every competition internationally as well. So we need to try to do that, please.
I’m sure you’ve made that argument for a few years, a lot of managers, but do you ever feel like you’re…
It’s not an argument, I think it’s common sense. I think it’s not at some point this becomes too much, you know, and the players are not machines. But we have to try to do that when we can.
