Following the 2-0 defeat to PSV Eindhoven, Mikel Arteta took part in the post-match press conference to tackle questions from the media.
The boss discussed the performance, injury news and also sent his best wishes to Pablo Mari, following an incident in Italy.
Here is everything he had to say:
on disappointment at how the team competed:
Yeah, it’s the end of a long run. Today’s the first defeat after a long period. It’s time to reset, to analyse what happened. Congratulations to PSV - they were the better team and they deserved to win the game. There’s no question about that. We were nowhere near our level today, especially the way we competed.
on why we looked a bit ‘off’ in some of the duels:
They were on top of that. Last week it was all ours and today it was very different. When that happens against top teams, it’s very difficult to win. Apart from any other aspects, today we were extremely poor.
on if he saw this performance coming:
I don’t know. We have periods where we’ve been excellent and periods where we’ve suffered. For sure, we haven’t had the consistency for 95 minutes to maintain the level we want. That’s the next challenge and the next aim for this team. Today I think it was very different, right from the beginning. Even though we had periods where we controlled the game, I didn’t feel that we had the threat and the aggression that we’ve been playing at.
That was worrying. In the second half, the moment something went wrong, we just went down and we didn’t really find moments to give us some hope to react and get something out of the game.
on how concerned he is by individual performances in Eindhoven:
It’s my responsibility to adapt and to get the best out of the players. These players have been exceptionally good. They’ve been performing at a level that probably no-one expected. It’s down to us and especially down to me to get the best out of them - that’s it.
on if tonight’s result affects his team selection for the Zurich game:
We never planned to have a day off in that fixture because we know how difficult it is to win in Europe. You just have to see the other groups and where everybody is. We’re in a really good position - we’ve won four games and we have to finalise the job against Zurich at home in a week’s time, and we will prepare for that.
on Matt Turner’s absence:
Yesterday in training he had some discomfort in his groin. He tried this morning but he wasn’t well, so Aaron had to play.
on if Turner’s injury is serious:
I don’t know - we’ll have to assess him. It didn’t look a serious injury, no.
on Xavi Simons:
I’m not here to talk about players from the opposition.
on the incident involving Pablo Mari:
I just found out. I know that Edu has been in touch with his relatives, he’s in hospital and he seems to be OK. I will have a briefing now about the situation, what happened, we will be in touch with him and hopefully he’s OK.
on what English clubs can learn from Dutch football:
I’ve always been a big admirer. You have to look in football history at the players and teams that have been examples for generations and the way they play, Johan Cruyff is one of my idols and had a big influence on the way I think about the game.
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