Every word Mikel Arteta said on Crystal Palace win, five Arsenal injury concerns and Eze goal

Mikel Arteta will be delighted to have claimed another victory in potentially a momentous weekend for their title hopes. A single goal and another clean sheet gave them the three points, with both Liverpool and Manchester City losing.

However, there were some concerns in the game, both on and off the pitch. The Gunners failed to record a shot until the 33rd minute, while Declan Rice and William Saliba left the field prematurely, and both Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have had issues, the latter limping down the tunnel at the end of the game.

He was of course also delighted about Eberechi Eze scoring against his former club, explaining the difficulty of doing so too. Here is every word from the press conference as Arteta faced the media:

These are the sort of games that are so important in the grand scheme of things, when you battle you keep a clean sheet and you really get it done. How important is this as a victory in that context?

I fully agree with you, I just told the boys that I value more this victory than any other victory this season. Because we knew the difficulty of it, you come after playing every three days, you have a big opportunity as well with the things that happened during this weekend and I knew, you know, we play against a team that in my opinion has been one of the best recently in terms of organisation, how difficult they made it, how frustrated they can make you and the moment that you lose that concentration they will punish you for sure. And we have managed to be very stable, playing the game that we have to play. In the first half a bit stuck, we found a way to score the goal in the second one, we attacked better and we were more fluent. But with 1-0 we knew that we had to suffer because it's a team that has to score goals to any other opponent this season, so to keep the clean sheet is very, very important.

READ MORE: Arsenal player ratings vs Crystal Palace – Gabriel stars again and Eze delights among two 8/10s

READ MORE: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace highlights: Eberechi Eze scores against former club as Gunners hold on

You said on Friday you wanted the crowd to play the game with you, I don't know if you saw the moment in the 95th minute when the ball flew back in from the crowd, you must be appreciating that to slow down the game?

[Laughs] There were a few moments when I described that, Ricky goes on the floor and puts a tackle, Jurgen the same, the way Victor was chasing every second ball. So some individual actions on the ball as well, I think we are getting better again and the crowd is playing the game with us and it makes such a difference. So yeah, thanks to them.

You mentioned in the first half the team were a bit stuck, would you say that's down to Palace being good?

Big credit to them, because you try to do something, they can adjust it, the way they are set up, they don't jump to things, they don't get attracted to things. The two outside players in the back line, they are really aggressive so it's really difficult to find those spaces and then you know the moment they regain the ball, they have a focal point on Mateta, two runners, and you have to be very disciplined because the moment you lose that on top of the two wing-backs running, you can get very, very exposed. So yeah, I said to the boys, it's going to be a long match, we have to be really stable emotionally, very direct when we have the opportunities to attack them, and we're going to have to take our chances because there's not going to be that many.

And just injury-wise, how's Declan?

Well, the first one was Willy that obviously had to be out after the first half, Declan as well was struggling from the first half with a knock that he took, and who was the other one? Ricky. As well. So yeah, let's see how that will go.

There was a number of times in the last two seasons where the title rivals would have dropped points and in those weekends you weren't able to capitalise. Obviously this weekend has been perfect for Arsenal with Liverpool and City dropping points. Were you aware or the team aware at half-time of the City result? Was that a motivation anyway to go out in the second?

No, I wasn't aware. I just found out at the end of the game, I think most of the players as well. They’re not allowed their phones at half-time, so hopefully they didn't know about it, maybe through the staff. But yeah, I think I'm really positive. We came forward especially because we did what we had to do, and then it shows you the difficulty of the league and how complicated it is to win games.

You've spoken before about magic moments. Is that the kind of moment you signed him for?

Yes, 100 per cent. To strike the ball in the manner they did it. He did it very similarly last year but against us when he scored from that corner and directly on the post. So he's got the ability to do that. We know against a team that defend with that many bodies, so physical, don't allow any space. With the nine defending your best player, you have to generate chaos or open space at some moments to generate big chances. He took the ball and it went really well.

Another one was Martinelli at the end. He was limping and he went down the tunnel with the physios. Is he OK?

Yeah, I think so. We have to check that one. He was a bit uncomfortable. He said he felt something. We don't know whether it's a muscular issue or not. Tomorrow we'll have more news.

Was Saka just tactical change?

Yeah, he's been ill. He hasn't trained really. So we didn't know whether he was going to be fit, so he made a big effort to be available today. The doctor was brilliant as well to guide us, to give us the best opportunity as well to be in the best possible condition. So he's managed to play a few minutes, but the longer the game went he was going to fatigue and risk an injury. And we didn't want to take that risk.

I know it's early, but it's six points ahead of Man City, seven ahead of Liverpool. Are you surprised at how it's panned out so far that you have got such a good lead early on that you can now build on?

We are where we are. It's a credit to us because we've been very, very consistent, but knowing the difficulty of every match as well. So it really doesn't mean anything other than let's keep doing a lot of things that we're doing really well. But there are things to improve to give us better margins as well.

Can we just clarify what the result was for the players?

No, because I don't know. Not because I don't want to tell you because I don't really know. On Willy there are two things related to his substitution and with Declan I don't really know because it was a knock. But I don't know if it was the calf or the Achilles or what exactly it was.

There's inevitably going to be a lot of focus on Eze today playing against his former team. Can you just talk a bit about how he handled the emotion of that and just the occasion for him as a whole?

I didn't see any difference. He's super relaxed always before the game, always a big smile on his face. He's desperate to play games, and I haven't noticed anything different. He might be inside him, obviously; he's been there a long time. It was such strong feelings and gratitude to Crystal Palace and today was a very special game for him.

On a weekend where a couple of managers have mentioned the manner of goals and set-piece goals and long throws, how happy does it make you to score the way that you scored today?

Well, in any way it doesn't make any difference how difficult. I think they all have the same value. We are noticing, obviously, a shift. The moment that physicality increases, methods that are implemented are more efficient and the game is more difficult to play because you can constrain spaces because physically you are better and you are better at work. You have to find ways to score in different ways and that's what I think everybody is trying to do.

The spotlight was on Eze today to produce against his former supporters, his teammates and he delivered with a spectacular goal. That's not really easy to do, is it?

No, it's not. That's what big players do and he's certainly a big player and hopefully that's going to give him a big boost and confidence to generate many more moments like this because that's the moment that sometimes defines a season.