Mikel Arteta spoke to Sky Sports after tonight’s [0-0 draw with Liverpool](https://arseblog.news/2026/01/report-arsenal-0-0-liverpool/). Here’s what he had to say.
**If you can’t win, don’t lose?**
Well, we know that the margins are very small. I think we had two different halves. The first one where we have a lot of domination, created some big situations with players almost inside the six yard box to pick a player up, and we didn’t find the right pass to score the goal. And the second half was a bit more of a struggle. We were very imprecise with the ball, which didn’t allow us to counter-press and be very close to their structure.
Obviously, they have a lot of midfielders, they started to drop everybody so they can put a lot of passes together without really having anybody in the box. I don’t think we conceded a single shot, apart from the mistake that we did in the first half.
These games need some magic moments. At Anfield, they did it and they won the game. Today it didn’t happen, but if you can’t win it, you can’t lose it.
**Did Liverpool do what you expected based on team selection?**
I knew they were going to put a lot of midfielders in. I knew they were not going to be very aggressive in the high press. I thought they were going to start to drop everybody. It was difficult to press them if you don’t win in the ball in the next two or three passes. That’s what we expected and then we had some moments where we had the right positional advantages to really hurt them.
When we got into these areas, we lacked that quality to pick the players. Maybe we put a few balls flashed across their goal mouth that you would have wanted someone on the end of. The final one where we have an incredible cross from Noni and Gabi is there, and normally it’s a goal. But we come from a very demanding schedule. The last six games that we play in this Christmas period, we come out of that in a really strong position.
**Did Gyokeres get the right supply or did he do things wrong?**
No, he did a lot of things right. At the end of the day, the ball has to arrive there to have the opportunity to do it, and to play against two world-class centre-halves. They know very well what to do to stop you. That’s why they are the champions.
**Did Martinelli make a mistake on the Conor Bradley incident?**
Probably he has. I don’t know what happened to Conor. Hopefully it’s not bad. But obviously there is no intention from Gabi to do anything bad to him.
**Summing up Christmas period when Arsenal went from second to six points clear …**
I think the desire and the quality the boys showed in this period, which is the most demanding one of the year. To do what they’ve done, it’s been a big credit to them. As I said, coming on through that period, in the position that we are, I think we have to be proud.
There are things to improve, as always, and today we’re going to get a few of them to be better and we’ll keep going.