Press conference

Every word from Arteta's post-Newcastle presser

Mikel Arteta during the game against Newcastle United

After seeing us exit the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage at Newcastle United, Mikel Arteta faced the media in his post-match press conference.

The boss was asked about missing out on the final, Gabriel Martinelli's injury and the recent fixture pile up, among other topics.

Here is everything he had to say:

on the result:
We had so many expectations to believe that we could turn it around. We didn’t generate momentum, especially in the first half, the game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied. Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin. We didn’t capitalise and in the next action, they scored the goal and obviously the game shifted and then you need to stay cool to score a goal as early as possible. We didn’t manage to do that in the first half, had another big chance, and then in the second half, we started to struggle as the game went by. We didn’t generate enough situations in the final third and the game started to get away from us.

on if Newcastle are one of our toughest opponents:
Yeah, they’re a tough opponent.

on the fine margins that could have changed the game:
When you want to be in cup finals and win trophies, in the end, those are [fine margins]. They’ve been really effective in the box in the last two games against them and we haven’t. Overall, that was the main difference – it’s true that today we were a bit more unsettled, especially when the game became more chaotic or when they were very direct with their play. Normally we are much more composed and today we lacked a bit of that, and the game went away from us.

on Gabriel Martinelli's fitness:
He felt something, I think it was his hamstring, and he wasn’t comfortable to continue, so we have to have an MRI scan tomorrow to see the extent of the injury.

on if tonight's performance was down to the packed schedule:
I wouldn’t like [to say that]. Especially when we lose a game, physically we were tired and you know we played so many games, we played so many games every three days, and we knew that this was going to be a really high-intensity one. I think emotionally as well, it was a very different game that we needed to get there to believe right until the end that we could do it, and before that the game got away from us.

on if it’s an opportunity missed not getting to the final:
If you are in a semi-final and you don’t get to a final, very much [so].

on redoubling our efforts in the two remaining competitions:
We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations. We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago. Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one, and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for.  

on if we lost this tie in the first leg:
Well, we certainly made it really difficult for ourselves.

on our defensive display:
The errors are part of football. We’ve been super consistent, we’ve been really composed and today we gave them hope just by putting the ball to the last line. When we did that, we always looked vulnerable because we allowed them to run from the situation and they are a really dangerous team when they are able to do that, but certainly they don’t want to do that, so what can I say.

on if he was surprised that Newcastle played with a back five:
No.

on Alexander Isak's performance:
I’m not here to evaluate opposition players but it’s clear that he had two actions to finish and you know what happened.