Top News

Mikel Arteta faced the media following his Arsenal side’s clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a six-pointer in the Premier League title race. Despite the desire of both teams to win, the Spaniard will be disappointed not to have secured a victory.

Chelsea’s ten men fought hard and looked the better side with even numbers on each side. However, the Gunners grew into the game despite their absences due to injury in key positions.

Speaking of which, William Saliba not being able to feature has come as a big blow as he joins Gabriel Magalhaes out of the side. Arteta gave his thoughts on the game, the dropped points and the injury effects.

• Arsenal player ratings vs Chelsea as Mikel Merino delivers but four 5/10s struggle
• William Saliba absence for Chelsea vs Arsenal explained as Mikel Arteta confirms blow

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

What's your overall assessment? Bearing in mind you played an hour against 10 men, is it a game you should have won? Do you view it as a one point game?

Yeah, well, first of all, I think it was a really proper London derby. Really intense, you could sense from the beginning that every duel, every action has something on it. Two teams very willing to win and not much football. It was a lot of restarts, a lot of free-kicks, stops, a lot of yellow cards, so not a lot of fluidity.

But after the sending off of Kayser, obviously we wanted to settle the game. We didn't manage to do that. We had more yellow cards, we had four yellow cards.

Obviously, those players were constantly targeted to try to even the game in terms of numbers. At half-time, we said, OK, let's pause it now. Let's now get what we have to do.

Very clear what the intention and how we're going to dominate the game. In the first action, long ball, gives a free-kick, wide free-kick, corner, concede a set-piece. So then the momentum shifted and emotionally the team had to react to that.

We managed to get some good spells without having too much momentum, scored a great goal. And after that, yeah, we had two or three big chances, but we lacked certain details, especially in the manner that we attacked to generate more and especially to avoid certain transitions every time Robert had the ball in his hands.

On the week for the Gunners, the big games and dealing with injuries

It's been a big week, starting with the derby. How emotional and the necessity and the intention we have to win it. Then to play Bayern Munich three days later. We lost players in those games.

Today, for example, we had to play [back four] that we never played before in a really difficult match. The captain is still not here. The nine is still not here. Kai is still not here. We lost Leo in midweek as well. But the team had to react to that.

I think overall it's been a really positive week because the difficulty was immense. But I have this [feeling] that today we should have and we could have won the game and we haven't. That's a learning point for me.

Were there some tired minds and bodies out there?

We played every two and a half days. Today we had one less day than Chelsea to prepare for that, and on top of that, we lost players. But it's the schedule.

Now we're going to have to play on Wednesday for sure and every three days. It drives you on. It was a lot at stake. There were two very, very in-depth matches. But that's the beauty of it as well. Not many clubs had the opportunity this week to play the games that we have played. I'm extremely proud of the team.

What does it say about your team? That they have come to Stamford Bridge, probably played below their collective level and be disappointed they’ve not won?

That's a good point. But that's the feeling that we have and that's the standards that we set for ourselves.

Probably it's because of the spirit and the hunger and how much they want it. It's so incredible that we will overcome everything because already a lot of things happened. But that's it. What we have to do is prepare very well and Wednesday try to be better than Brentford.

It's been 3 years, 3 months and 25 days where only twice have you been unable to pick either Saliba or Gabriel for a Premier League game. What impact does that have on your team, not having either of those two?

It's been a headache because obviously we have to have a lot of options and changes in the last few months for different reasons. That one is, as you said, with those numbers that I didn't know, very unexpected, and it happened yesterday.

But the beauty of it is that you have players so willing to play, so willing to connect with each other. We will build a relationship even better. So today was a great learning match for all of us and as well give you the assurance that whoever is there is going to perform.

There's been a view across football looking at your squad that you have the deepest, strongest squad in the league. Today that depth was tested. Have you seen anything today to suggest that you haven't got the deepest, strongest squad? Because it looked like your performance intensity was there despite the loss of numbers.

To be fair, it's been tested since the pre-season. Because we lost six or seven players, constantly out of the squad. But I have no doubt, as I said, with the quality that we have and especially with the mentality that every player has.

Without Gabriel and William Saliba, you're obviously quite a different team. How long do you think you'll be without Saliba?

I don't know. I think he's got another test tomorrow. We'll need to see the extent of that feeling, that sensation that he had. And we'll know more with Gabi still some weeks to go.