Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been speaking ahead of his side's trip across the capital to west London where they will take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon. 

The Gunners manager gave injury updates as well as speaking about injuries, form, facing Chelsea and much more.

Read on for everything he said: 

on whether Declan Rice will be available:

I have to be very vague on that one because there’s no clarity on whether he’s going to be fit for the weekend.

on whether he has a broken toe:

That's for the doctor, what I can say is that he hasn't trained yet and it is not clear whether he’s going to be available or not to play.

on if Martin Odegaard could start:

Everybody that is in the squad is going to be fit and available to start the game, so then it will be a decision whether it is too early or the right moment for him to make that step again.

on if Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino are OK:

We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they react. Kai had quite a nasty cut and he could not continue. With Mikel, to be fair the day before he wasn't feeling great and we decided to sub him at half-time.

on whether he’s had to lift the players after recent results:

When you don't win it affects the mood and energy but the positive thing is that it is impossible that anyone in this room or outside wants to win more than I do, and these guys in the dressing room want to do. Today I had a meeting with them about it and I can sense it straight away. What I sense as well is a big belief about how good we are as a team, and again what we did in Milan watching it back twice, I hadn't seen my team doing that against them.

But you need to take that into a winning football match because, in the end, that is the only thing that anybody is going to judge, not how superior you were to the opponent, that you outrun the opponent, you out-performed the opponent in every single way. It is about how they scored a goal and you didn’t. We have a problem, and the problem has to be resolved by scoring more goals than the opponent - that’s it.

on whether he can use our similar experiences last season to go on a run:

The results probably were very similar, but the context is very different because you tend to forget why you lost a full game against Bournemouth, or what happened what we didn't win against Liverpool or the amount of situations we have had to go through. It does not matter, in the end we cannot go to Dubai for a week now like we did last time, we can go to Dubai still for two days - if that's the solution we’ll go forward and backwards! The team is doing 10 times more better things than we used to do at that period, that's the positive thing, but for all this to be clear and relevant you have to win, especially to answer certain questions.

on whether this game is a must-win given the teams we’re competing against:

Especially because we have missed certain points in the last few weeks. The margins are becoming smaller and smaller, that doesn't mean the margin doesn't exist anymore but more perfection is going to be demanded in the future. For sure, we want to win, we have to prepare and we have to prepare to win it, and that's the only thing that is in our heads.

on what he’s made of Chelsea’s progress:

Really impressed about what [Maresca’s] done but what they’ve done over a year because with Mauricio [Pocchetino] the last six months were extraordinary. You could see the squad, the quality they have, the amount of players they have and then Enzo has given his touch and you can see clearly what he wants to do. I think he’s been really brave from day one to consistently follow what he wanted to do. I know how he thinks, I know a lot of people that know him well and are very happy that he is making a lot of progress there.

on being behind Chelsea on goal difference and if that could be important later in the season:?

Everything is important, we don’t know if we’re going to get to the last day when goal difference will be important, but it’s certainly something to bear in mind.

on how to handle the threat of Cole Palmer:?

That’s a question that probably all the managers in the league have had in the last year or so and he’s still managed to impact games in the right way. Obviously we will have a plan, not only for Cole, but to minimise all the quality and threats that they have and try to exploit their weaknesses, like any other team.

on if the title race is over if we don’t win on Sunday:?

I don’t think about that.

on if the team has needed a reset this week:?

We don’t need a reset. We need, in one particular aspect, to go from 95 to 100 and I’m not going to tell you what that is.

on why it’s difficult to be consistent in the Premier League:?

I think everybody has been consistently struggling with the level that there is in this league and in generally in Europe, playing every three days at that level. The temperature is going up another level, the level is going up another level and to win, win, win would require perfection, so it's very tough, but this is the task.

on if the margins are getting smaller between all the Premier League clubs:?

I think so, yes.

on if clubs need bigger squads to cope with injuries:

?With actual regulations? I think it’s very difficult. If we play every three days, it’s going to be a necessity, that’s for sure.

on how many squad members he’d like to have:?

It’s not about the number, the quality of that squad, that’s going to be the key. It’s not just about a number, you can have numbers from all kinds of players, but it’s about the quality of that squad.

on if Martin can fix our attack:?

We are demanding that but it’s not very realistic. It’s about the collective, every player taking ownership with what we have to do in attack and doing it better and more consistently. But certainly, having a player like Martin helps because he’s shown how important he’s been for us in the last three or four years.

on if Martin could join the Norway squad:

?Let’s see how he goes, how he trains tomorrow. He’s available, he’s fit, if he does play it’s about how he’s feeling after that, and then we’ll make the decision between the three parties.

on if Martin has helped the squad while he’s been unavailable:

He’s always very close, always very active with the team. He knows the role and responsibilities that he has. He’s tried his best but obviously not having him in the squad, in the team, on the outside with us on many occasions, it is different. But I think on that issue, especially when we talk about motivation, there are no issues at all.

on if it’s too simplistic for the team to click with him back:

We hope he’s going to help because he’s been incredibly good for us and the impact he has on the team, not only in that phase, but in other phases that are also linked to the attacking phase, especially the way we transfer from one to other. He’s been out for a while as well, so let’s hope that it’s going to be very fast and that he can impact the team.

on if anyone can reach 100 points this season and if the standards are different:

I think it’s going to be very difficult. We don’t know how it’s going to play out, if there’s a team that’s able to do something like this, but everybody is struggling, even if they’re winning. That’s the thing, sometimes the margins, you can sense, feel they are bigger in games. They’re not at the moment. I haven’t seen a team being that superior to other teams, but in the end the fact is you have to continue to win and find ways and details to keep the right to win the games.

on the importance of togetherness among the squad given recent challenges:

That’s the joy of this team. You go in there this morning thinking: ‘how are they going to feel after that and what will we talk about?’ and they are there paying attention. They are hungry, they want to do more, whatever we can do and it’s unbelievable. The desire we have, the togetherness, it’s just a joy to work with them.

on travelling away supporters and the impact they have:

The fans are incredible, the way they follow and support the team. Unfortunately in the last two we haven’t had the chance to bring the victory with us, so a London derby is a good place to do that.

on our away record and what it’s down to:

There are other things. The level of opposition that we have played because nobody has played the away games that we’ve played this season, and certainly not in the condition of playing half of those games with 10 men - nobody in the league.

on what system we could adopt when Martin returns:

We have had to adapt a lot of things this season because we have a lot of injuries and a lot of situations especially in the backline and midfield, so that’s something that the team is learning as well and adapting to. A lot of times it has worked really well, other times, something is missing because it’s going to be different, but the team definitely has the capacity to do that.

on how the team is doing 10 things better in certain ways than last season:

If I compare how we played against Porto and Bayern Munich and the way we played against Inter Milan away in Europe, there is no comparison whatsoever. But in 10 or 20 aspects of the game and having everything, all the post-match reviews after that, it is very clear. The thing is that you need the result at the end. The outcome was disappointing, it should’ve been very different but this is football, that’s the beauty of it. Even doing that, if you’re ahead you can get very frustrated because you haven’t won the game, but there are a few aspects to that.

on how Nwaneri and Zinchenko change the dynamic when they come on:

I think it was a bit different, the state of the two games [against Newcastle and Inter]. One because we lost control at Newcastle and there are certain spaces that I believe those two players were ideal for, but we never got any momentum with it. With Inter it was a bit different and a bit better. I think we need to understand how we can change games.