‘All the protocols were followed’

Mikel Arteta expressed his concern for the welfare of Raul Jimenez and David Luiz after our 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Sunday.

While the boss was clearly frustrated and disappointed with the loss, his first concern in his post-match related to the sickening clash of heads that left the Wolves man in hospital.

 

David Luiz carried on after the fifth-minute collision – albeit with bandaging to his head – only to be withdrawn at half-time. But Arteta explained that all necessary protocols were carried out, with the Brazilian defender suffering a nasty cut, which later led to him being substituted.

 

Here’s the manager’s post-match interview in full:

 

Another disappointing evening here at the Emirates, but what's your main frustration tonight?

Well first of all my main concern is what happened with David and Raul. David is completely fine, it's just a nasty cut and he wasn't comfortable heading the ball so we decided to take him out. All the protocols were taken care of and he was fine. And with Raul we're really concerned because it looked serious so hopefully, we want to send him best wishes to him and his family, and [wish him] a good recovery.

 

Have you spoken to anyone at Wolves?

Yes, we have spoken and they were concerned, but we will see what happens.

 

With David, was there a chance he might be taken off at the time of the incident?

Yes it was the first thing that I asked but the doctor did all the protocols, all the testing. David never lost consciousness, he was completely fine he was just not comfortable heading the ball.

 

On to the performance, where was the game won and lost tonight?

In the boxes. They had two shots on target in the first half and scored two goals. We generated a lot of situations, and lot of chances. But sometimes it was the ability, sometimes it was the quality of delivery. We are not hitting the target enough, that's for sure when we are getting that amount of times in this situation and it's something that we need to put right straight away because to win football matches at the end, in both boxes, it's how efficient and how ruthless you are.

 

We are falling behind in the Premier League table, how concerning is that for you?

It is, because the home form is crucial to have some stability in the league. We have lost three home games in a row which is really, really disappointing in many different ways, starting with Leicester, when we didn't merit to lose. Today we didn't merit to lose, but against Aston Villa we did, in the last 25 minutes the way we played. But it is our reality so we have to be humble now. This is our reality and we know where we are at the moment, and to come out of it is going to be only by everybody being together, pushing in the same direction, putting in more energy, more effort, more work and adding more to the team.

 

Can the fans coming back give the team that lift?

We really need them. It's one of the things that's missing. They can push the ball into the net as well. We can't wait to have them and hopefully that will be soon.