Mikel Arteta faced the press following his Arsenalside’s draw with Brentford, which sees the gap at the top of the Premier League table close to four points between themselves and Manchester City. His side could have easily lost this game were it not for the efforts of Cristhian Mosquera and Declan Rice, who provided last-ditch tackles.

The long throws and set plays were a problem, ironically, for Arsenal, who are usually so good in those situations. The home side managed to find an equaliser through this dangerous weapon after Noni Madueke had given the Gunners the lead.

This will certainly have ramped up the pressure on the north Londoners, who continue to face questions in the title race despite their lead at the top. The door has been opened; the question is, will Manchester City continue to pry it further ajar?

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Here is every word the Arsenal manager said after the 1-1 draw with the Bees:

Normally, you look at this as two points dropped, but the way the game went, is that actually a point gained, perhaps?

Well, I think the game had different moments, the first 10-15 minutes we lacked sets and composure to dominate the game better. I think after that we started to play much more in our way and started to play in their half and generated some good situations without really having clear-cut chances. The second half, the way we started, we really looked at threat.

The way we combined, the way we threatened constantly their [defenders] and the goalie was much better. Again, without really hitting the target enough times or finishing enough actions and then we scored the goal and the game was under total control. But against them, that's not enough because they just need somebody making a foul that is unnecessary, a ball in the channel, they push you, the clearance is not good, ball before a throw-in and then you have to pray because they are exceptional at what they do.

The chaos that is in and around that ball is very, very difficult to defend. We said, you want to win here, you're going to have to defend the box with your life and you're going to have to clear the ball because there are a lot of people there and if you don't do that, it's very difficult for you to win the game. We haven't done it in one of the actions, I credit them as well for that and then the game became more open, more transitional.

They had one of the big chances and the clearance of Declan just at the end and we have two very good counters and probably the biggest chance of the game when Martinelli is the only one with a keeper to win.

Does he have to score that, Martinelli?

You have to, it's football and the keeper as well can make the decision and the action that he did. If you want to win here, you're going to have to be really ruthless in both boxes.

At half-time, you made a big change with Eze coming off and Martin coming on. Could you talk about that change, why you decided to make that change and why that was the decision at that point?

Because with the way that they were pressing, I think we needed another kind of profile to generate many more problems for them around those areas and I think he came on in the pitch really well and the team had another gear and more threat to arrive to the areas that we wanted to do and that's the decision.

Are you worried at all by the lack of impact that Eze's having on the pitch?

Well I think he had moments and it's not easy when you move to a new club, it's always like this and when you play against a team that is like this and the ball is a lot of times not on the floor and you have to be constantly breaking the play and do that, especially for attacking and creative players, it's more difficult.

Is there something in having to play second after Man City, there's been a lot of games where Arsenal played first and you have an easier time maybe to take on a game in that condition, do you feel like there's a different kind of pressure at the moment?

I don't think so, I think we played as well after them a few times this season, and we have won the games, and today is not about that. We lacked certain things against them, you have to defend those situations, even better prevent them, you want to give them no chance or just hope that something bad happens and we didn't manage that well enough for us throughout the game.

In a sense though, do you take a positive, although you talked about you've got to defend with your life and set pieces and so on, there was some moments of defending with their lives on one-on-one when there were breaks. You talked about Declan and Mosquera, it was a great tackle.

The thing has to be every action because they go for volume, they know the probability they want to create and they just need volume to increase that probability and they are constantly doing that and they are really good at doing that.

Do you have a problem with the way the play, the chaos and the play with the set pieces?

No, they are really good because when they have to play as well in and around you, I think they dominate so many areas on the high press, they are really good. They are really good on rest hours, they are really good when they have to counter, exceptional when they have to counter as well. They have a lot of qualities and I give credit to them and they can take the game into these areas and they are really well coached and from the beginning I said credit to them for what they do because you know they don't have the home record and they are not in the position they are in the league, that's for sure.

Obviously you are still four points clear of City at the top, is it important that you don't panic after dropping a couple of points tonight and everybody just stays calm and tries to keep focused?

That's what we have to do, I mean we are going to be willing and preparing to win every single match and the only thing that we can do is focus on that and raise the levels collectively and individually to be better than the opponent every week and that's going to carry on like this till May, regardless if we play before or after that. It's just the things that we have to do, that's the most important thing.

Just as a follow up to that I guess, there was one stage on Sunday where it looked as though you would be nine points clear and now obviously the gap, as was said, is four points. Is there a worry at all at the moment?

I understand but that's an if, if, if and if we would have lost in Newcastle we were eight points behind Liverpool in October. So if, if, there are a lot of ifs for ten months in this competition, you can only focus on what you have to do and try to do that in the best possible way.

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