Every word Mikel Arteta said on Arsenal, Aaron Ramsdale, Smith Rowe display and Sagoe Jr

Thoughts on the game?

Really happy. In this competition you are in or out. We are in. Two very different halves. The first half we had a lot of control, scored the goal and had some chances to put the game away. We didn’t.

Second half, they had a more aggressive approach and we struggled to control the ball and we were too direct and then it becomes a difficult game because there are a lot of duels, free kicks, long throws and you have to defend every time, bring everybody back and try to win territory from there. They’re really good at that. When you don’t play that well you have to have some big defensive moments and we had that with some big blocks in the box and with Aaron making a big save as well.

Was that the response you wanted from Aaron?

For sure. He’s been exceptional around the place with the situation. Like everybody. I think Jakub played really well, Tomiyasu too, Jorgi after what happened three days ago he had a really big game, Reiss did too, he hasn’t started many games and scored the goal. Same with Emile. And for sure Charles, it was a great day for him. It’s great to have an academy player with us and a lot of positives to take and as always a lot of things to improve as well.

The fans clearly love Aaron with his reception…

We love him more for sure. We have him every day. We know him, we know his character and we are really happy to have him.

Is it more difficult to leave him out when you consider how big he was last season?

Every player is very important. We have a lot of injuries as well and players who contributed. But in football it’s about now, it’s about the moment. Today he had the opportunity to play and he played a really big game.

What did you make of Emile’s display?

I think he had really good