Mikel Arteta faced the media after Arsenal’s draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford.
There was some controversy as the free-kick Manchester United scored from was estimated to have been 11.2 yards away, as set by Anthony Taylor, rather than the established ten yards as set in law.
Here is every word from the press conference as Arteta faced the media:
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Mikel, what were your thoughts on the result?
Frustrating not to win the game, but with everything that we did, especially in the staff, it's 43 to 44 minutes. The dominance, how we dominate every aspect of the game, full control, we lacked a little bit in the last 15 to 20 metres, that showed to have more purpose, more direction, the last pass, the last action, but the game is clearly for us and going in the direction that we wanted. Unfortunately, one long ball, we don't manage that ball well, we give it away, we create a foul, in a really dangerous area when you have to rely on them not taking advantage of the quality. That's a really bad bet against Manchester United, they capitalised on that in the second half. We tried to generate the momentum, we scored the goal, and when my feeling was that they were struggling because they could not get out and I didn't feel that they had the legs to do that, we opened the door for them to maybe win the game because we gave some very unusual balls away and very basic things done really poorly. Even though we have three big chances, the reality is that we saved us and at the end, in the last time, we could have lost the game.
You're obviously chasing down the title and you've dropped points in three consecutive games, which bearing in mind the standards you've set the last couple of seasons, out of keeping, how frustrating is that and what do you put that down to?
Today, the efficiency we've had in the last 20 minutes, it wasn't good enough. We know that because we're big parts of a lot of things and the game demands you don't draw at Old Trafford and what we did, superb, but at the end you have to capitalise on that when the team is so dominant and much better than the opposition. Today we didn't and then you have to overturn a result, which we know how difficult it is to do that here and you have to expose yourself a little bit more because you have to take more risks as well and then the game, as I said before, could have gone the other way in the last few minutes.
Can I ask you about the free-kick? How far back the wall was.
They just mentioned that if Bruno is on that, football is for smart street players and if he's done that and capitalised on that, he was more clever than us and the referee.
Should it…
I don't know, but he's done it, it was a goal, so they took advantage of that. Football is for clever people.
Martinelli returned. Are you confident having that quality back when you've got games in the Champions League coming up that could be a real game-changer for you?
Yes, but we have to rely and we can do better with the players that we already have and we have to be consistent because we did so well three days ago, four days ago and it's about doing it again and again and again, like we did last week. It doesn't matter, it's very positive that with the ones that we have, we can do better in terms of what we produce in the final stages.
Ruben [Amorim] was just saying that he wishes he had more Brunos in his team, do you look at anyone in your team and think, I wish I had more of those guys?
I'm very happy with the ones that I have.
Mikel, you obviously got Gabi back early, is there any chance of Bukayo coming back early?
With Gabi it was a bit different, the kind of injury that he had and we talked I think last week that he was much closer than he would be. After the international break, let's see where he is. His progress is really good, he's really willing, as we can all imagine, so we are positive that in a few weeks, hopefully he will be back.
When we heard from Ruben, he basically said he didn't want his team to play in a low block, that's not how he wants to play. Is there a worry for you that opponents when they play Arsenal seem to think a low block is how to stop them and you sometimes struggle to break that down?
Well, I think he mentioned it and I think it was very clear that he didn't want to play that, but in the manner that we dominated the game, they didn't have another chance and then he scored a goal and they capitalised on that and we were unable to score the second one.
All season people have asked you about number nine and centre-forward, but when you look at that last 20 metres of the pitch, is it actually the other areas where Arsenal can be better in terms of creativity and actually making those chances?
Yes for sure and that's the responsibility of all of us and we don't want to put that into the nine, so I fully agree with you, that's the initiative that everybody has to take, especially when we attack against so much density, we've done it in the past, we've done it recently, but we have to do it consistently.
And this low block, it's becoming a real consistent thing that Arsenal come up against. Is your training now very geared around that in preparation?
Yes and that's why as well another big part of that is set-pieces and the amount of situations we generate, we generate that, so that's another tool that a few weeks ago, a few months ago, were exceptional and opened a lot of games and we lost a lot of players up front, so we need to recover all those things as well because they are really helpful.
The gap's 15 points; I know you have a game in hand now, I know you'll always fight for that, but deep down do you feel the title race is over?
I don't want to say that, but today the frustration is that we haven't won our game, we know the urgency and you're obligated to win every single match. You won't have any chance of doing that, I don't think it's the right moment to talk about that.