Every word Mikel Arteta said on Port Vale, Noni Madueke injury, Arsenal 'bad luck' and Max Dowman

Mikel Arteta faced the media ahead of the midweek fixture in the Carabao Cup against Port Vale. After the disappointment of dropped points against Manchester City, there is a chance to get back to winning ways and the Gunners boss certainly had a focus on that.

There were updates on the latest injuries suffered by Noni Madueke, Piero Hincapie and Martin Odegaard. While there is an expectation that others could yet return to the team to help build match fitness.

Here is every word Arteta said in Tuesday’s press conference:

• Mikel Arteta provides huge injury update on Noni Madueke and three other Arsenal stars
• Arsenal handed fresh title prediction with exact points total compared to Liverpool

Another injury for another player. What's the update on Noni?

Yeah, he’s going to be out for a few weeks. We don't really know yet, probably we're going to have to do a scan next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on and half-time he was too sore, so that's it.

Is it weeks more than months?

We hope so. As I said, we need to scan him again to see the real extent of the injury, but it doesn't look too bad.

And how disappointing is that for a player that's come into this side and had such a positive impact?

Yeah, he was gutted, obviously. Very disappointing to see him because he was in such a good state. He looked a real threat. He was getting some consistency, some flow now into the team, and he looked like a real threat, so it's a big miss for us.

Let's unfortunately stick with the injury theme. Hincapie, what's the update on him?

Yeah, he picked a little groin injury. We have to again assess him in the next few days how he goes. There's been a change of load and he didn't really have a pre-season after the injury. We'll have to see in the next week or so how he is.

And again, is there a time frame you think he could be? Is that weeks? Is it months?

No, no, no. I think a short time.

Kai Havertz, is there any more update on him? We’re gonna ask you all the time.

Well, with Kai we know that it will be months with him. I don't know if he can be weeks. You never know because this is Kai and he's a different specimen. He's progressing and we really miss him. Hopefully he'll be back and back for the long term as well, which is very important to look at suddenly. So far he's progressing really well.

With all these injuries, we saw it last season, so many that affected the season. We start the year, every single Premier League game you've picked up a new injury. Is it just bad luck or is there more to it? Is there anything that you as a club, as the medical department, are doing to try and understand why over the last 12 months nearly, you're picking up so many injuries?

Yeah, well, we looked at obviously everything. The one with Noni, it is bad luck. It's a very unfortunate incident with Kai. Something similar with Ben White, it was similar. With Martin Odegaard, it has been very similar because he damaged his shoulder twice doing the same action on the floor, which is very unlikely to happen. With Bukayo, it was more a muscular injury with the hamstring. Maybe something to look at more in-depth, and we absolutely did that. Try to keep that as low as possible. That's what we are trying to do.

Right, let's move on to tomorrow night. A cold Wednesday night in Stoke. How much of an opportunity do you see the Carabao Cup has, certainly for you as a manager, to be able to give minutes to squad players, maybe a debut for Kepa tomorrow?

Yes, it's a lot of players, obviously, that are going to take part of that, that they fully deserve minutes. Kepa, for sure, is one of them. He's been with us, his attitude, the way he supports every aspect of his role in the best possible manner and others as well. Probably they deserve more minutes as well.

It feels like there's been so much noise after the game against Manchester City, despite getting that late equaliser, having a positive end to the game, the noise afterwards has been fixated on this apparent cautious approach that you've had to certain games. Are you surprised by the noise? If we were surprised, I don't know.

Surprised? In football? I don’t think I’m surprised by anything.

Are you surprised where you've got so many ex-players coming out? Does it frustrate you, or is it people just not looking at the approach you're actually setting the team up in terms of how you want them to play rather than the specific individual players they want in there?

No, because I don't read it, but he [my comms officer] does tell me what the narrative is around it. If you tell me that this is the main one, if I'm surprised, I would be extremely surprised with my knowledge and my know-how and how I analyse a football game. Because it was impossible for somebody to predict such a dominance from Arsenal throughout 96 minutes, because it never happened in 17 years of Pep as a manager. So if the narrative goes somewhere else, and we're talking about dominance now about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have, what was the word? Handbrake. Dominance and handbrake, they are two different words. But I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision.

Mikel, just on players who need minutes, can I just ask you about Myles? You obviously played a lot last season and hasn't started a game this year. What are the reasons behind that? Is that a thing where young players have these peaks and troughs where they're going to play and not play?

Yes, and sometimes performances of other players as well. You can be at a really good level, but somebody can be in a different level or just they have the perception at the moment it's better to play or start somebody else in the team. Not just rely on something wrong, that's completely the opposite. So when he has the chance, just to try to show the level that he's at, elevate it and make the decision even harder.

Just on his development, do you still see him in that left-back role or do you think going forward you're still thinking about midfield? Is it quite a fluid situation where he's going to play?

Yes, fluid, especially because if you look at the amount of time that Myles defends and attacks in certain spaces, he's much more of a midfielder than a full-back. But the moment that he needs to be in that position, he can absolutely do it. He's shown it. He's done it at the highest level in the Champions League, so there's no question about that.

Can I just check quickly on the injuries on Martin? I'm assuming tomorrow's too soon, but do you know when he might be back? Does he need surgery on that shoulder?

No, no surgery. He's totally fine. He's already been training and it will be a matter of days, I think.

Just to ask you a quick one on Max [Dowman], because you're in a unique position, I think, as a manager, to manage and coach a player of such a young age. And there's this perception that players of that age need to be playing so regularly to build up that development. And when you progress into the senior team at such a young age, and you might necessarily be on the bench and not exposed to as many minutes as a player of that age usually would, how do you have to cope and find that balance for a player of that level?

Well, learning from him, probably. First of all, preparing and having a very good understanding of his new situation and all the things that are different in his life. So we need to change his times, we need to change his education, probably his allocation and where he is with his family. His diet is different, his sleep patterns become different, the training load is different, the amount of information, pressure exposure is different. So we have to manage a lot of factors. Into that a lot of factors you add a lot of minutes with very different teams as well. We need to be cautious and very, very careful. And that's what we are trying to do in the best possible way, to find that balance, to keep Max as connected as possible with the first team, because he's undoubtedly a player that can help the first team. But that's why we need the right mixture of minutes, like he did the other day with the [Under-21s] and with England, to have that exposure when he needs to play with us, he's ready to do that.

And can I just ask you also about how, when you see him on the training ground, interacting with the players who can be in some cases twice his age, how do they react when, say, they get a nutmegged by someone so young and taken aback? How do they respond to those moments of seeing someone so young?

At the beginning, they responded immediately, kick him! That was the first one. And Max, to be fair, he was excellent. He stood up and got into the next one. You can really take impression of someone who was 14 last year at some point when he was doing certain things to players. And now, yeah, everybody loves him. You just want to hug him, help him. He's such a nice boy as well, and he's very much liked by everybody here. And just looking after us. It brings responsibility to look after somebody with that talent and make sure we just do what we have to do to make sure we're giving him the best chance to exploit his talent. That's all.

I was just going to ask about Bukayo and what he's ready for in terms of minutes and exposure. Because I was wondering, does he need to be eased back in at the minute after about a month out or is he just ready?

Yeah, he needs minutes. And he's demanding that as well. Obviously, when he's been out for a while, you just need to get in the rhythm. You need to get that confidence on the pitch and repeat actions and exposure. And we will do that, obviously, gradually, because he's been out for a while. But I like what I saw the day when he came on.

And with Gabriel [Martinelli], I think when he came on, his goal came from coming off the right-hand side. So is that kind of flexibility something you're still looking at in terms of maybe using both of them a bit differently?

Yeah, he can. And a lot of the runs that he makes sometimes as well are from central position in relation to what face of play we are playing and what is the starting position. And his actions, his impact has been really, really good, I think.

Sorry to go back to this handbrake narrative. I appreciate you don't obviously read it or hear it, but when you hear about it, does it frustrate you? Does it annoy you? Because obviously you think you're doing the complete opposite in the fact that Man City had to put all their men behind the ball on Sunday.

No, I was just surprised. Because when I saw everything and watching it back and all the stats, I was surprised. But I respect everybody's opinion. And if I can see and learn something that I haven't seen, I'm more than happy to do so. So that's never an issue. And, as well, I don't think that one player makes that. When you see the behaviour of our team, if you want to define that with one player playing one position, I understand. A collective sport in a completely different way. And then we play Ebz on the right-hand side. Could he play 90 minutes? That's a question I put for myself because none of you know the load that he can do. So it's easy to say he could have played with the start. Maybe not. Because he already played two games from the start. And he's never played as a right attacker in his field. So that's another one. A new element for him. But all good.