Following our Europa League defeat to PV Eindhoven, Mikel Arteta took questions from the media previewing our game against Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
After the loss in the Netherlands, the boss was quick to turn his attention to the Premier League again, with just three days between the fixtures.
Here is everything he was asked and responded with:
on if he’s concerned that our strikers haven’t scored for six games:
We need goals and we need them from our front players, that’s for sure, to win the games and give us bigger margins. That run of lack of goals has to end for us to be in the position for us to win more matches.
on if he has learnt lessons from last season’s FA Cup defeat to Forest:
When you don’t play at your level, any team can beat you. [Against PSV] you have seen another example. When you don’t do certain basics the right way, you get yourself into a position where the game is very dangerous. That day in particular, especially in the first half, it was all of that.
on if he was as disappointed after PSV as he was against Forest last season:
Things were very different, we’d been on an unbeaten run of nine games, winning eight of those against really difficult opponents and those players deserve a lot of credit for what they have done. It is my responsibility, especially when we lose.
on what he is going to do to get our strikers scoring again:
Training is very restricted but sometimes it is a lot of mental things that you can work on and discuss. With the experience that they have, it is not the first time that they have been five games without scoring a goal in their careers - it’s happened to every striker that I know of. You have to deal with it, it’s part of the job.
on if he is worried that one defeat may lead to more:
The best thing after a defeat is to win the next game, that is 100 per cent for sure. We have a great opportunity on Sunday in front of our crowd, and we have been incredibly good at home but we have to see a different side of us.
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