Ahead of our trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Sunday, MIkel Arteta held his usual pre-match press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Center to answer questions from the media.

He talked about injuries, our current form, what we need to do to improve it, the Blues’ improvement and much more.

Here’s everything he discussed:

on Declan Rice’s availability:
I have to be very vague on this point because we don’t really know if he will be fit for the weekend.

if he has a broken toe:
It’s for the doctor, what I can say is that he hasn’t trained yet and we don’t know if he will be available to play or not.

on if Martin Odegaard could start:
Everyone in the squad will be fit and available to start the match, so it will be a matter of deciding whether it is too early or the right time for him to make that move again.

if Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino are doing well:
We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they react. Kai had a nasty cut and couldn’t continue. With Mikel, to be honest, the day before he wasn’t feeling well and we decided to replace him at half-time.

on whether he had to relieve players after recent results:
When you don’t win, it affects the mood and the energy, but the good thing is that there’s no way anyone in this room or outside wants to win more than me, and these guys in the locker room want it. TO DO. Today I had a meeting with them about it and I feel it right away. What I also feel is a great belief in the quality of our team, and again, what we did in Milan watching it twice, I hadn’t seen my team do that against them.

But you have to take that into account in a winning football match because, at the end of the day, that’s the only thing anyone is going to judge, not your superiority over the opponent, the fact that you outplayed the opponent , you have surpassed the opponent. in all ways. It’s about how they scored a goal and you didn’t. We have a problem, and the problem must be solved by scoring more goals than the opponent – that’s all.

on whether he can use our similar experiences last season to run:
The results were probably very similar, but the context is very different because we tend to forget why we lost a whole game against Bournemouth, or what happened, what we didn’t win against Liverpool or the number situations we had to go through. It doesn’t matter, in the end we can’t go to Dubai for a week like we did last time, we can still go to Dubai for two days – if that’s the solution we will move forward and let’s go back! The team does 10 times more things than we did at that time, that’s the positive, but for all that to be clear and relevant we have to win, especially to answer certain questions.

on whether this game is a must-win given the teams we’re playing:
Especially because we missed certain points in recent weeks. The margins are getting smaller and smaller, this does not mean that the margin no longer exists but we will have to demand more perfection in the future. Of course we want to win, we have to prepare and we have to prepare to win, and that’s the only thing we have in mind.

on what he thinks of Chelsea’s progress:
Really impressed with what (Maresca) did but what they did for a year because with Mauricio (Pocchetino), the last six months were extraordinary. You can see the team, the quality they have, the number of players they have and then Enzo has given his touch and you can see clearly what he wants to do. I think he was very courageous from day one to consistently follow what he wanted to do. I know how he thinks, I know a lot of people who know him well and are very happy that he is making a lot of progress there.

on being behind Chelsea on goal difference and whether it could matter later in the season:
Everything is important, we don’t know if we’ll get to the final day where the goal difference will be important, but it’s certainly something to keep in mind.

on how to deal with the threat of Cole Palmer:
It’s a question every manager in the league has probably asked himself over the past year and he’s always managed to impact games in just the right way. Obviously we will have a plan, not only for Cole, but to minimize all the qualities and threats they have and try to exploit their weaknesses, just like any other team.

on whether the title race is over if we don’t win on Sunday:
I don’t think about it.

enabled if the team needed a reset this week:
We don’t need a reset. We have to, on one particular aspect, go from 95 to 100 and I’m not going to tell you what that means.

on why it’s difficult to be consistent in the Premier League:
I think everyone has always struggled with the level that exists in this league and in Europe in general, playing every three days at this level. The temperature goes up another level, the level goes up another level and to win, win, win you need perfection, so it’s very difficult, but that’s the task.

if the margins narrow between all Premier League clubs:
I think so.

on whether clubs need bigger squads to deal with injuries:
With real regulations? I think it’s very difficult. If we play every three days, it’s going to be a necessity, that’s for sure.

on how many team members he would like to have:
It’s not a question of the number or quality of this team, that will be the key. It’s not just about numbers, you can have numbers from all kinds of players, but it’s about the quality of this team.

if Martin can repair our attack:
We demand it, but it’s not very realistic. It’s about the collective, each player taking ownership of what we need to do on offense and doing it better and more consistently. But certainly having a player like Martin helps because he has shown how important he has been for us over the last three or four years.

on the possibility of Martin joining the Norwegian team:
Let’s see how he is, how he trains tomorrow. He is available, he is fit, if he plays, it all depends on how he feels afterwards, and then we will make the decision between the three parties.

if Martin helped the team during his downtime:
He is still very close, still very active with the team. He knows his role and responsibilities. He did his best but obviously not having him in the group, in the team, away with us on several occasions, it’s different. But I think on this issue, especially when we talk about motivation, there is no problem.

if it’s too simplistic for the team to click with it back:
We hope he will help us because he has been incredibly good for us and the impact he has on the team, not only in this phase, but in other phases which are also linked to the offensive phase, notably the way we move from one to the other. . He’s also been out for a while, so let’s hope it goes quickly and he can make an impact on the team.

if anyone can reach 100 points this season and if the standards are different:
I think it’s going to be very difficult. We don’t know how this is going to happen, if there is a team capable of doing something like this, but everyone is in trouble, even if they win. That’s the problem, sometimes the margins, we feel it, we have the impression that they are bigger in games. They are not at the moment. I haven’t seen a team that is so superior to other teams, but in the end, the point is that you have to keep winning and find ways and details to maintain the right to win games.

on the importance of team cohesion given recent challenges:
This is the joy of this team. You go in there this morning thinking, “How are they going to feel after this and what are we going to talk about?” and they are there and paying attention. They’re hungry, they want to do more, anything we can do and it’s amazing. The desire we have, the complicity, it’s just a joy to work with them.

about traveling fans and the impact they have:
The fans are amazing, the way they follow and support the team. Unfortunately in the last two games we haven’t had a chance to get a victory, so a London derby is a good place to achieve that.

on our external balance sheet and what this corresponds to:
There are other things. The level of opposition we’ve played because no one has played the away games we’ve played this season, and certainly not in the condition of playing half of those 10-a-side games – no one in the league.

on what system we could adopt when Martin returns:
We’ve had to adapt a lot of things this season because we have a lot of injuries and a lot of situations, especially in defense and midfield, so that’s something the team is also learning and adapting to. A lot of times it’s worked really well, other times it’s missing something because it’s going to be different, but the team definitely has the ability to do it.

on how the team is doing 10 things better in some ways than last season:
If I compare the way we played against Porto and Bayern Munich and the way we played against Inter Milan in Europe, there is no comparison. But in 10 or 20 aspects of the game and having everything, all the post-game reviews after that, it’s very clear. The point is, you need the result in the end. The result was disappointing, it should have been very different but that’s football, that’s the beauty of it. Even doing that, if you’re ahead, you can get very frustrated because you didn’t win the game, but there are several aspects to this.

on how Nwaneri and Zinchenko change the dynamic upon entry:
I think it was a little different, the state of the two games (against Newcastle and Inter). Firstly, we lost control at Newcastle and there were certain spaces that I think those two players were ideal for, but we never found any momentum. With Inter it was a little different and a little better. I think we need to understand how we can change the games.