Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of our Premier League clash with Brighton at Emirates Stadium on Saturday and discussed the state of the squad, responding to defeat at Selhurst Park, and the challenge posed by Brighton among other topics.
Read on for a full transcript:
on Monday’s game…
Monday is gone. We’re looking forward to playing in front of our fans.
on what he learnt from Monday…
We have to play better and we have to compete much better than we did on Monday.
on Thomas Partey’s injury…
It is a little bit ambiguous, but he has a significant injury and we’ll have to keep assessing him, but he will be out for some weeks. It could be (an issue), but it could also not be because it’s an area where he had a previous injury as well and he felt it straight away. It’s not quick.
on Kieran Tierney’s injury…
Our responsibility is to look after them when we have them here, but once they go to the national team, in this case it’s their job and responsibility to decide the team that they believe is the best to win the games and we have to try to have quick communication with the national teams, which we have, but these things happen
on Nuno Tavares proving himself…
Throughout your career you have to go through difficult moments, and he’s had some really good periods since he arrived at the club and he was playing many more minutes than he was probably expecting. That’s the life of a player, especially at that age. There’s ups and downs and we are here to try and help him and make his career better, and that’s what we’re going to do.
on whether he is ready for it…
He is ready and he is willing, and he will be disappointed, but it’s part of the job and we have to make decisions to try to win football matches. There is nothing personal there.
