Every word from Arteta's pre-West Ham presser

We host West Ham United on Saturday in our last match before the October international break, and Mikel Arteta has been speaking to the press ahead of the contest at Emirates Stadium.

The match will be Mikel's 300th as our manager and he's been speaking about the milestone, team news and much more at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.

Read our full transcript below, with a video of the press conference to follow:

on the latest on Gabriel’s injury:

We’ll have to wait and see after training. We’ve done almost nothing today, so we’ll see how everybody is. But we weren’t too concerned about him.

on Hincapie’s fitness:

He will be available after the international break. So we’ve been trying to do everything as fast as possible but this came too fast. Now we have the international break and hopefully after that, he will have a couple of sessions with the team and be ready to go.

on the rest of the team’s injury news:

They’re still out.

on Thomas Tuchel praising the character of our players called up to the England squad:

Very much, and coming from someone like Thomas [Tuchel], who I know very well, for him to describe Myles [Lewis-Skelly] in that way, credit to the boy, the families, and everybody that has been part of his education, because that's very, very important as well. And Myles, as you said, he hasn't played probably all the minutes that he wanted, but he's professional in the way he's engaged with the team, whether it's here with the national team, and this always gives you the possibility to count on him. Then we have played him in the Champions League, and I think he had a really good game.

on managing Saka’s minutes on England duty:

We’re always talking, Thomas and I. We're always in very fluent communication, both ways. First of all, from my side, to give him feedback on where each of the players are, and after, when they've been in camp as well, to reflect and learn how everything has gone. So I'm sure we'll do that, and so far it's been very fluent and very positive communication.

on facing West Ham United:

We want to continue to play and flow and dominate games in the manner that we are doing, and it’s going to be a key fixture. Obviously, we learned in the last two seasons as well, because we had two defeats against them here, and it's something we need to put right, and tomorrow is another opportunity to do that.

on our recent home record against West Ham:

That's the difficulty of that, and the game that we're going to have to play tomorrow as well, with a new manager, and we know Nuno really well, the way he sets his team. So we expect a really tough match, as we're going to demand again three days later, to come back and have the same performance to win the game.

on potentially going top of the Premier League:

It's about generating momentum, and there are periods in the season that they are crucial and tomorrow's game is a really important one for us, and that's why, from the beginning, we need to generate that, in the stadium as well, and go for it, because after we have two weeks' break with the international week.

on 300 matches as our manager:

It’s a lot.

on his win rate:

Continue to go, the only thing that matters now is to go on Saturday again, and maintain the feeling and the things that we're doing really well, and hopefully many, many more to come.

on reaching over 1,000 matches in the future:

The target is to win on Saturday, and things will come. So when I started on day one, I had no clue for how long and with, who I was going to be sitting in this chair, and the only thing that I can say is thank you, and I enjoy every minute of it, and for many more to come, hopefully.

on what would make the next 300 matches a success:

Again, winning, so you said about the winning rate, it’s the highest, and even with that winning rate we haven’t won major trophies, so that shows the level, that’s why you have to do what has been done before, but this level is not enough, it has to be much more, and it is much more difficult, that’s what we’ll try to focus on doing.

on Gabriel’s scoring record:

That’s a fundamental part of a central defender, dominating both boxes, and he does that probably like no one else, and that’s the joy of having him on the team.

on Bukayo Saka’s growth in his 200 Premier League matches:

While you were doing your question, I visualised Bukayo playing as a left-back, that's the first thing that came to my mind, against Bournemouth, on my first game, so very far from the pitch, very far in his journey, very far as well personally, and the person that he's becoming, the role he's got in the team, and we had a great journey together and it's been a joy to see that every single day.

on if a win over West Ham shows growth this season:

Yes, there are always moments when you have dropped points, and that's certainly been one of those, and at home we know the form that we need and the amount of games that we have to win to reach the target that we have, and again, tomorrow is going to be a key match for us.

on how he’s got to 300 matches in charge:

I feel very privileged, I'm really enjoying what I do with the people that do it, and we know in our job it's about winning a lot of football matches if you want to stay in the job, and the other one is while we are doing this, make sure as well that we enjoy our profession because it's got, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful things that you can experience in life, and trying to do both things at the same time.

on the journey over the last five years as manager:

You see the rotation in the squad has been phenomenal, but at the end, you get to where you get thanks to everybody who has been on the journey. Some people they've been for six months, some others for three years, some others for 18 months, but they've all been critical and very important. Sometimes to help the team, sometimes as well to help you learn, the direction that you have to take in and what is the moment as well to change and re-evaluate the things that you are doing, and I'm very grateful for everybody that has been part of this journey because they've all been very important.

on if he needs luck or to be a better manager to win trophies:

Probably you need a bit of both in many senses because with the amount of points that we have generated, or the win rate that you just discussed, other managers have won titles, big titles. We have won titles, but we won the biggest ones, and that's it. Sometimes in sports, you have to congratulate somebody else who has been even better than you. You can be really, really good or excellent, but somebody has been extraordinary. This league is the level that demands, but certainly, we're going to try to get to that.

on not facing Graham Potter this weekend:

A little word for Graham [Potter] because I think he's an exceptional manager and he's done it in various contexts in his career for a long, long, long time. Then, as a man, and just talking to a lot of players and people who have had the joy to work with him, the way they're describing him and the time that they have spent together. So, it's sad to see him go, especially with some of the things that happened on social media and a lot of things that I think, in my opinion, to have the best league in the world, we have to improve.

To have the best league in the world, we have to make sure that the people who are so important in our league are taken care of in the right way. And I think, all as a whole, I think we can do better on that and hopefully we can learn from that.

on Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Odegaard’s relationship on the pitch:

As you say, we haven't seen enough for different circumstances, especially because Martin hasn't been available much this season for different reasons. But there is something as well. They have that personal chemistry and hopefully with more time on the pitch and more understanding, that will flourish as well.

on finding the freedom for players within a tactical system:

I think there is a way around, I think you have to create a system and a structure around the qualities of the players and with our attacking players especially, we try to do that. Even with our defenders, we know certain qualities that we have in that defensive line and we will pick certain ways to press or certain ways to defend or force people in relation to where they want the ball to end. With Martin, it's very clear that we want the ball in certain areas with him because when he's able to do that, he's a real threat.

on switching Bukayo to the left wing against Olympiacos:

With Bukayo, we decided in the last few minutes to change sides for two different reasons and because he's on a natural foot on that side, especially against teams that are constantly pushing their full-backs and the space is wide, he's a real threat.

on if Jurrien Timber is the most underrated player in the league:

I don't know because I rate him a lot, so I don't know how people rate him. Hopefully a lot because when you're talking about a total player, he has almost every quality that you want from a defender.

on the minutes for Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly:

I work with what the boys can provide in the context that the team is playing in at the moment. Ethan has played two games in the Premier League very early because of an injury to Martin as well. He played in other competitions and he will play more. With Myles, it's the same, but sometimes it's form, sometimes it's the fact that we want to do certain things in relation to the position and that's it. What I want is for them to be in the state that they are in. They have to be used and when they are playing, whether it is to a starter game or for a few minutes, they are fully ready and both of them have been really good at that.

on if he'll continue to rotate his squad:

With the schedule that we have, we have to play Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. So the last time we played three games in seven days is a while ago. Some of the players haven't played, ever, three games in seven days. So we need to manage that because they come from a period of a lot of load. We had two very, very high games. So if the schedule continues like that and they don't give us an extra day, we're going to have to do that, yes

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