Every word of Mikel's Post-Leicester press release | Press conference | News

After an incredible afternoon at the Emirates Stadium, Mikel Arteta sat down in his post-match press conference and reveled in the three points from a 4-2 win over Leicester City.

He was asked about the excitement of the afternoon, repeating points against Manchester City, individual performances and much more.

Here's everything he had to say:

about whether his players wrote down the result before the game:
I'll have to check, but I don't think it was on that paper. It got very emotional, certainly more emotional than we wanted, but I'm really happy with the performance, the way we played, the chances we created, the way we dominated the game and after the second :0 the result should have been much bigger. But this is the Premier League, the quality of the opponent, the quality of Leicester, they scored two goals and I'm even happier with how we handled that situation afterwards. It was great emotionally, the control, very clear what we need to do, how consistent we need to be to attack the spaces and continue to do a lot of the things we were already doing. I think we fully deserved to win the game.

on losing the two-goal lead in the second half:
Especially in this scenario and with the performance we have delivered, it is very worrying. In theory you should never reach that point, but that's football and that's the beauty of it compared to many other sports. Then we have to earn it differently and we did that with the incredible support of our fans, they were incredible again.

on Trossard's second goal, which was ruled an own goal:
Hopefully not, it's disappointing because today he did so much to score in as many situations as before and yet his contribution to the team today was really good.

on the win after Manchester City dropped points:
It is the sixth game in the Premier League. We're in September so we want to win every game and do our best to achieve that and that's all. Let's take it game by game and try to improve every week.

on the high tension for a game in September:
We'll talk about this in September, no matter what we do, we're in September. Of course we want to win and start building the right platform for the season and be in every competition in the places and in the areas that we want. To achieve that you have to keep winning, winning, winning, that's the requirement. You can see the level of the other teams in the league, but we can only control what we do.

about victory in a difficult context of the game:
So happy – that’s what I told them. It got bad, it got difficult, it was hard to accept emotionally given the amount of situations we created and the amount of goals we should have scored but that wasn't the case and now what? You don't feel sorry for yourself, you take responsibility, you take more risks, everyone. Nwaneri, 17 years old – he takes the ball, the first one is like that, he runs past two or three players and wants to take a shot. I just love it, you want to play here, you want to be at the level you need to be able to play with that courage. I really, really appreciate that from the team today.

on the consistency of Bukayo Saka's corners:
This is not an extra, this is a game changer. When he stands in front of the goal and shoots the ball into the net, it's a game-changer. That's what he has to do consistently at this level and the others have to do other things. I think we generated 17 corners today, we should have scored from other goals, we need every possible means to always be a threat.

on whether he would replace Trossard before the third goal:
NO.

on whether Calafiori was lucky not to be sent off:
I didn't see the action, but I was really worried when that happened because he committed the foul, but I didn't see the replay.

on his comments about Manchester City in the last press conference:
I can repeat it clearly, I love Pep, I have admired him since I was 10 years old. I respect him deeply, I am so grateful for everything he has done for me and continues to do with me, I consider him a friend. I love and respect every employee there because I worked with them for four years and when I say I know them, I know how hard they work. I've never seen anyone work as hard as Pep and the coaches and everyone at this football club to win consistently and the reason they're there is because they maintain that hunger and that's what I'm learning and exactly what I do I mean.

It couldn't be clearer. If you want, I can repeat it when someone wants to harm a relationship that is out of my hands. This feeling is deep, he knows it, the employees know it. I still talk to them today, to the board, to the owners, to everyone, and if it wasn't like that, it wouldn't be real, and it is.

If someone wants to play something different for me, the sport has to be about that desire to win. He has it, I have it, we have it, most definitely because we didn't do it. They have it, even if they want it more than anyone else, we have to learn and it has to be inspiring for us and it is for me and that's what I mean because I've been there. It's remarkable and an incredible achievement because they have that mentality. Hopefully that's clear.