Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says Bukayo Saka is to be out for a few months following his injury
27/12/2024
Emirates Stadium, London, UK
27/12/2024
Emirates Stadium, London, UK
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00:00What did you make of the performance?
00:02Very happy with the victory, with the clean sheet and with big parts of the game.
00:09It's a really difficult opposition, we play in so many games, you see that teams are winning
00:16for very small margins, today we could have done the margins much bigger, at the end we
00:20didn't.
00:21But I will hold our nerves in the last few minutes, you know, to defend well in the areas
00:26that we had to do and overall very happy.
00:28Is the frustration that you should have scored more?
00:31More, more.
00:32And we had some big openings as well in the second half, they were a little bit more stressed,
00:36they were a bit more aggressive.
00:38The big header of Gaby as well, one yard.
00:41So we should have scored more, but it's the consistency, the team conceded nothing again,
00:46the defensive behaviours were again outstanding.
00:49So that's something that's going to give us always the chance to win games.
00:54Kaya, for the last time.
00:56Last question.
00:57Last question.
00:58For your career.
00:59About Kaya Saka, there's been a few reports suggesting that he's had surgery on his
01:04hand injury, can you confirm or deny that?
01:07I would prefer to leave that to the doctor himself, but he had a procedure, everything
01:11went well, but unfortunately he will be out for many, many weeks.
01:15And also this day, what's the news on Raheem Sterling as well?
01:20Yes, the news with Raheem Sterling I think is better, we have to see this week how he
01:23evolves but we expect the knee injury to probably take longer than actually the way the knee
01:30has evolved in the last few days.
01:32Hopefully that's good because we need him.
01:36Did you see enough from Debbio Martinelli out on the line to think he could be the long-term
01:40solution out there?
01:42As I said, I think the replacement of B is going to be the team.
01:45And that unit in particular and having minutes together and asking different things and doing
01:51that.
01:52There were moments that it flowed really well, there were moments that we can still have
01:55some work to do there and improve it and adapt to the qualities of the individuals and I'm
02:01certain that we're going to do that.
02:04Hi Mikel, really different scorelines obviously to the Crystal Palace game, much narrower
02:08margin of victory, but in terms of the complete performance and not giving anything away,
02:14do you think this was a more satisfying performance for you as manager?
02:18In terms of how well we controlled the position?
02:21Ten times because we conceded 14 or 15 shots against Palace and it's nothing that we normally
02:27do.
02:28So overall I think this one was much better, but it's about the goals as well and the beauty
02:33of it and entertaining people and that one probably was better for them.
02:39Have you got any more definitive timeline on when he might be back now he's had surgery?
02:47I said many weeks so I think it will be more than two months.
02:51I don't know exactly how much longer, I think it will depend on how that scar tissue starts
02:58to heal the first week or so, mobility of that.
03:02Let's see, it's very difficult to say.
03:04We saw tonight that defensive shape, how important or how more important will that
03:08be when you haven't got Bukayo for these two months that you've got a defence that's so
03:11strong and so reliable like that?
03:13Well it's always important because as well with Bukayo that doesn't mean that we're going
03:17to score three and four goals every game.
03:19We have to rely on the team, that's the biggest strength of us, we never rely on individuals
03:23scoring 25, 30 goals and we have managed to be very, very competitive still and we're
03:28going to manage to do that.
03:30We'll go to James finally and then we'll go to the 5pm embargo.
03:34You mentioned the moments where the team replaced Bukayo, well what was happening in those moments
03:39that you really liked?
03:40That he needed, Gavin needs people around him, he needs constant threat, he needs to
03:44be always in the last line when the ball is on his side, that he has relationships there
03:49and people close to him because he's very intuitive, he's always a threat.
03:52If you isolate him too much he's going to suffer, especially playing with a natural
03:57foot on the right and that's things that we can evolve and improve.