Every word from Arteta’s post-Liverpool presser

Mikel Arteta took plenty of positives from our hard-earned 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday.

The boss called it ‘an unbelievable game of football’ and afterwards he spoke about the performance, working on set pieces, playing at Anfield and what he wants from the second half of the season.

Here’s a full transcript from his post-match press conference…

On the match:
It was an unbelievable game of football, one of the most intense and hectic games that I have witnessed in 20 years in this league. The quality, the intentions of both teams… It was superb to watch it and we as a team with the boys willing to play at that level, to have the courage to play at that level, the determination and belief to do what we’ve done here, I think my players deserve big, big credit.

On working on set-pieces:
It was a great action and we sense an opportunity against every opponent and we do that and we score from there. We should have done better from many situations we had in the final third in open play because we generated a lot and that is a little bit of regret. At the other end, it is true that they had some moments, especially the one after our corner when they went through and we had a miscommunication on the edge. It is a big quality of them and we were lucky not to concede a goal.

 
On the defensive trio of Rice, Saliba and Gabriel:
Those three were phenomenal but I think the whole team as well and how we step up to the level that they put today, is one of the best Liverpool’s I’ve seen this year. They made life really difficult. The game became really, really chaotic, the crowd provokes that as well but we handled the situation really well.

 
On the difference in performances at Anfield compared to last year:
There were a few players missing last year. Big ones for us, who are really important. Especially, when you have to play this type of game that they propose and you cannot get away from that type of game because they are really good at doing that. But then in the last 20 minutes I think that the team was very willing to win it and they were really dominant and really wanted to go and get the three points. We have the experience of being where we are today and we should be really happy because that shows a lot of consistency for this new group in the best league in the world to be there two years in a row but that’s it. We are where we want to be right now, both in the Premier League and the Champions League and we all deserve a beautiful dinner tomorrow with our families but the next day we are back on it because West Ham is going to be very, very tough again

 
On comparing Anfield to a washing machine:
Yeah, we gave so many balls away after regaining it and that is the worst moment against them because they are really good on the counter press moment and we lost it in areas as well that is prohibited against them to do it. We could have been punished but we generated a lot of washing machine moments for them that they didn’t like.

 
On the team being more emotionally stable:
They’ve certainly got more experience and it was a very different game to last year. What they did today, in this stadium, in this atmosphere that they created as well was something else. The maturity and the courage that we showed, I think we should be really proud of our players.

 
On what he wants to see from his team in the second half of the season:
There are some things we have to improve, especially killing games with the amount of dominance that we are showing. Sometimes the results have been too close, where we have had to dig in the last few minutes to maintain results and that is it, nothing else. Hopefully, we have sustained that level with five key players out because we lost five very,  very important players for us for many, many months and the team has still shown that so that is something we really have to maintain which is the quality in the squad and how willing they are to do what they do every single day.