Mikel Arteta faced the media after his side’s damaging defeat to Newcastle United, which saw the power of what a clinical striker brings to a team. Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon got the goals on the night and it creates a huge task for the Gunners to somehow recover the tie.

He was asked, of course, about the level of clinical finishing in the side too. There was also reference to the state of the ball, which he feels is also very different to the usual Premier League ball.

Here is every word from the press conference as Arteta faced the media:

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Plenty of chances the score, but does the result seem fair?

It’s the result. If you look at what both teams produced and the dominance its not the result that reflects the story of the game but the reality is they were super efficient with the chances they had and we weren’t.

At this level, in these kind of scenarios you need that to impose yourself and win again.

How do you feel about the tie?

That it’s just half-time. When I see the team play, and how we deal with a lot of situations and play against a very good team I must say I have full belief that we can go out there and do it.

Is there a danger you’re just running out of steam?

Yeah, but I mean, if we lose the game or draw the game, it's going to be down to that, if we win it and today we score three, that we should have scored, three goals, the story would have been different and it's incredible and their tireless and how they try every single action. I don’t even want to talk about that, we have so many games coming up, big ones, the team really wants it.

Do you look back on anything with regret tonight?

Yeah, the two goals that we give away after one or two deflections in the first one the ball arrives there but it's preventable, they generate that chaos, they are good at that and the second one as well. The reception in the box, the ball can only get there to get the ball, and he gets there so, we can do better.

Does this feel like a year where luck has deserted you?

Comparing to last season, we're in the same position in the Premier League and were out of the Carabao Cup. We're in a better position considering everything that happened. I don't want to really use [luck] as any excuse. The team still performs and competes with the best teams. We're one of the best teams right now. We produce much better things. No time to talk about [luck]."

Unusually long time between ties, are you confident the squad will be in a stronger position by the return leg in February?

Hopefully yes, that we will have more players back and we will have more options and the freshness that we’re going to need in that period. We play so many important games so I hope so.

How wary do you have to be that the missed chances don’t become a psychological issue for the players?

Nothing, try to improve. There are things that we could have done better, we were unlucky in moments, you need that certain luck of the ball to bounce there, you need that intuition as well and we’re going to have to generate more. That’s the thing we can do and then probably it will be higher for us to win.

But certainly against this team to have to produce what we have produced, and looking at the last six games I’ve watched I haven’t seen it. The score says 0-2 unfortunately.

But in terms of putting missed chances out of their mind, what can you do to help them with that?

Nothing, just try and show them, give them kicks or tips of what they can do better. We also kicked a lot of balls over the bar, and it's tricky that these balls fly a lot so there’s details that we can do better. But at the end that’s gone, there’s no way back it's about the next game and that’s our world, the reality is out world.

Strange feeling in the stadium, fans leaving with seven, eight minutes to go. Is there a worry this could seep into the players?

That’s their decision, we try our best, stay right behind the team or leave. I repeat it a thousand times how important they are, how critical it is to maintain the level of energy or belief in the stadium to help generate those moments at the end, because we were very close to score the 2-1, I would have needed that, but that was the case, yeah, that’s not good.

Do your players have enough of that killer instinct?

Yeah, and we’re always going to discuss that when we don’t score a goal because when we score five against Palace, or three the next game we’re not going to discuss that and try to help the players as much as we can.

Alexander Isak had a great game, how good is he?

Yeah obviously and the ball arrived to him, that he created and had a lot of big changes. He was involved in both goals as well, unfortunately the two times he had the ball in the box and that’s what happens when you have real quality up front and they can make the difference, and they’re very clinical.

What is the issue with the ball you mentioned earlier?

No, it’s just different. Very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies different, when you touch it the grip is very different as well so you adapt to that.