Mikel Arteta on Premier League frustrations, Rice’s role and trio’s injury concerns following Arsenal’s draw with Brentford | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta admitted his frustration at not being able to put more pressure on Liverpool after Arsenal’s draw with Brentford.

Arsenal drew 1-1 with Brentford after the Gunners made five changes from their eleven that put three past Real Madrid in midweek.

Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Miles Lewis-Skelly, Jurrien Timber and Mikel Merino all were rested ahead of the Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.

“Today what we wanted to do was increase the probability of us really challenging for what we are looking for in the Premier League,” Arteta said. “With that result, obviously, it’s more unlikely to happen.

“I think the players know that when you come to the Premier League and the position we play today, how it’s going to be and what it requires. It requires your best every time to win.

“Yeah, we still have six games to play in the Premier League, which are going to be really important. But for sure now it’s all about winning.”

Declan Rice again started off the back of scoring two free-kicks against Real Madrid in the Champions League, and Arteta says he is trying to get more out of him in attack.

“Every time you score a goal after you have the feeling the next one you can score again,” he said. “I think Declan had an unbelievable action as well in the goal today.

“Running the ball in open space until the right moment to release Thomas and leave him one against one situation with the keeper. And I think it was a really strong performance again.

“When we break the press, when they’re just more man-orientated and they want to take more risks to open those spaces and sets and gaps and then a set-piece is a clear situation because there’s a lot of space to run.”

Arsenal finished second in the previous two seasons and they currently sit 13 points behind Liverpool, with the Gunners boss admitting it is disappointing not to be able to run them closer so far.

“Yeah, it is difficult because obviously there are a lot of reasons why we are with that distance and the amount of things that we have to deal with,” he said.

“Still, we are where we are. But yeah, we want to be higher, that’s for sure.”

Thomas Partey and Jorginho were both forced off in the game while Ben White did not make the squad through injury.

On Partey, Arteta said: “He (Partey) felt something so we didn’t want to take any risks.

“I haven’t spoken to the doctors yet. So they will check him now and see how he is.”

Jorginho, meanwhile, appeared to suffer with a rib injury which Arteta said meant “he could not carry on”.

And on White’s injury, Arteta explained: “Again, we don’t know. So he could not be in condition to be in the squad today and be selected. So we have a few days but we’ll have to wait and see.”