Every word from Arteta's pre-Slavia Prague presser

We head to Slavia Prague looking for a fourth straight Champions League victory and ahead of the contest, Mikel Arteta has been speaking with the press.

Our last visit to the Czech capital came in 2021, when Bukayo Saka inspired a 4-0 victory in the Europa League quarter-final second leg.

Before meeting Slavia once again, Mikel spoke about squad fitness, managing a busy schedule and much more.

Read every word below or press play on the video above to watch the full press conference:

on Viktor Gyokeres’ fitness:

He’s definitely not available. He hasn't trained today, and we need to do some more tests and scans in the next few days to understand the extent of the injury, but for this game he's not available.

on trying to strike a balance for rotating the squad in another big game:

Yes, that's a situation that we've been dealing with for a few weeks and trying to have the right freshness, the right cohesion within the team. The team has been competing really well in all different competitions and tomorrow we know that we have a really tough match here, they are unbeaten here at home all season. It's a team that are very used to playing together; they have a very clear philosophy, they create a massive atmosphere as well, so we know it's going to be a really tough match.

on the scheduling of our Carabao Cup quarter-final with Crystal Palace:

Hopefully they will move our Premier League match because to play two days later, it doesn't make any sense obviously. We will now decide the date, I'm sure they will change the Premier League date as well.

on if he’s concerned with Viktor’s injury:

I am concerned because he hasn't had many muscular issues and he had to leave the pitch and he was feeling something and that’s obviously never a good sign. Especially for a player that is very, very explosive, so we are digging in a little bit more to understand where we are in terms of injury and we will announce it when we know more.

on our defensive mentality:

Very good at the moment, obviously. I think the collective organisation is very, very strong, and the individual behaviours of players to defend with such energy, intelligence and aggression in every ball is something that has been key to our success.

on Gabriel Heinze’s impact:

It's the whole team - every member of the staff, every player brings something to the table, that's something extremely collective. When you talk about the numbers and everybody has to bring his piece, Gabby’s done it, all the coaches do the same and especially the players who, at the end, have to execute what we want.

on if we’ve made a request to the Premier League about moving our game with Everton to accommodate the Crystal Palace match:

I leave that to the club, I think we're very clear what's the best thing, the most logical date to play. I’m sure we’ll have to adapt to that.

on if it’s a disadvantage to play two games in three days:

I think, as I said today, that we'll apply the principles to the players first, then the supporters, and then the times. Now we need to have equality and the same chances for every club, so hopefully it will be fair.

on how Viktor is feeling in himself:

He was very disappointed after the match with what he felt, but this is part of football. At the end of the day, if you expect a linear line, everything going up, it's not going to happen. If he's got something he's going to have to deal with, we will help him to do that. As you said, he was in a really good moment, in a really good form, it's very important for the team. But for tomorrow, we don't have him, so that's it.

on how impressive our clean sheet record has been in the competition so far this season:

Yes, of course, it's a huge platform to win games and the difficulty of that in this competition and when you’re playing away, even more so. Tomorrow, we know we’re going to face a really good challenge here and, in the team as well, they are very intense, very direct, very vertical and we're going to have to be really good to achieve what we want.

on how concerning it is to have to play two games in three days with the injuries we have:

We have seven players out, so I don't know what depth we're talking about now because we're missing a lot of players, a lot of front players, so if we continue to do that every three days, we won't be respecting what we discussed earlier, which, in our opinion, is the most important part.

on what Viktor’s muscular injury is:

I'll leave that to the doctors; they will explain. I don't want to talk anymore [about it]. We are here to talk about tomorrow's match and the players that are available and we'll see in the next week or so.

on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain being back training with the academy:

Top! Top character, one of the best characters I've met in football. If we can help him, if we can give him the space for him to get up to speed and have the capacity to find a club, it's a joy. The boys will learn from it. I had the privilege to play with him, and if he's around, he will be a really good role model to have around the team.

on if Declan Rice being one yellow card away from a suspension will influence our team selection tomorrow:

It comes as well with the situation of Zubi. We know that Zubi was on two yellows as well, so that's the competition, at some point you might miss players in crucial games, obviously we're going to try to avoid that as much as possible but it's part of the competition.

on Christian Norgaard’s role:

Exceptional. I knew very clearly the role that he was going to have, exactly what he is doing. I think he was in a really good moment before he got injured and it took him a while, again, as is normal, to get up to speed and now he's having some more minutes and he's available for tomorrow.

on if there is a pattern to our injuries in the frontline:

Well, we looked at everything, obviously we have four knee [injuries], with Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, [Noni] Madueke and Martin Odegaard which is very, very unusual all of them with long term and then we have some muscular injuries with other players which can happen, and every club has. I think it's very unusual to have that many players in the frontline with issues. We have to face it, we've been facing it in a brilliant way and we'll continue like this.

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