It was an unhappy return to Premier League football for us, as we were beaten 3-0 by Liverpool at Emirates Stadium in our first game back from the international break.
Mikel Arteta gave an honest assessment of his side's performance after the full-time whistle, and also provided fitness updates on Kieran Tierney and David Luiz.
Here's every word from his virtual press conference:
on a disappointing result...
Liverpool completely deserved to win the game, probably with a bigger margin. They were much better than us in every single department and we were extremely poor today. Basically when you don't do any of the basics right against this level of opponent, you don't even have a chance to compete. That's exactly what happened today.
on what he puts that down to...
[Twelve defeats this season] is a poor return but every defeat is different. Each one hurts differently. The image that we showed today and the lack of clarity in what we wanted to get out from this game... we need to apologise to our people, to our fans. This standard is nowhere near what we want. I am fully responsible for that.
on how we bounce back...
What we do is talk on the pitch. To talk now on the cameras and say we're going to do this or that, to try to find excuses because we don't have this player or the international break cost us, it's not good enough. It's time to talk on the pitch on Thursday.
on whether the players were fresh enough...
It's true that in the second half we struggled after we conceded the second goal. But I think the confidence went down as well and we were very poor in a lot of departments. When that happens, it can look like we were tired, but it was more a mental issue and an issue with how we started the game, as well as how we approached it. We didn't win enough duels or enough second balls and that's a starting point. We gave so many easy balls away again, which against this opponent you get punished. They were much better than us.
on expecting our players to show a statement of intent against Slavia Prague...
Absolutely. This is the minimum that we can do, to perform at a completely different level on Thursday.
on why we have been inconsistent this season...
It's very frustrating to see that and today was a big shock to the system. We have been really competitive against the big sides. We beat Chelsea here, we beat Spurs and we drew against Manchester United but today they were really good. A lot of credit to them because they were really good today, but we were extremely poor.
on whether that's our worst performance since he took over...
I don't know whether it's the worst but it's probably one of the worst. It's one that really shocked me and leaves us in a position where we have to apologise for what we've done on that pitch today.
on missing players...
I don't care who is missing, that's excuses. International break is an excuse and I hate excuses. They were much better than us in every single department, they fully deserved to win the match by a bigger margin. I am fully responsible for that. The rest, about one player, two players or three players not being available is just excuses.
on whether any players could return in time for Thursday...
I don't know. Today I cannot answer that because I don't know.
on Kieran Tierney...
He felt something in his knee. He was in pain so it looks like he will be injured but we don't know how long for.
on David Luiz possibly requiring surgery on his knee...
We don't know. There a few possibilities on that, being a little more conservative with the treatment or having to go for a surgery. We are talking with the doctors at the moment to make the right decision on that but we'll see. He could be out for a few weeks at least.
on whether David Luiz could play again this season...
I don't know. It will depend what the decision we take is. If it's more conservative, it will be short-term. If it's a bit more radical with what he needs, it will take longer.
on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's performance...
We expect more from every player, from myself. The standards we showed tonight are nowhere near the club's.
on Martin Odegaard being our furthest player forward...
It was a combination of a lot of things, obviously credit to Liverpool for how they [pressed]. We were extremely poor in doing what we had to do to avoid that.
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