Mikel Arteta fires warning to Liverpool with Arsenal vow: 'We'll be flying' | OneFootball

Arsenal boss is expecting his side to be at their best for visit of Premier League leaders

Mikel Arteta promised that Arsenal will "be flying" against Liverpool this weekend after admitting his side "looked tired" in Tuesday's 1-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

The Gunners maintained their unbeaten start in the revamped Champions League but made hard work of the Ukrainian visitors following goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk's own goal after 29 minutes.

Leandro Trossard summed up Arsenal's night in front of goal by missing a second-half penalty, which Riznyk saved with his legs, and David Raya was forced into a smart save in stoppage-time to deny Pedrinho.

"Two very different halves," Arteta said afterwards. "The first one we were very dominant and created four big, big chances.

"We should have put the game to bed with the amount of dominance and territory that we had. We looked tired. We lacked that sharpness with and without the ball to regain the ball in the right moments and areas and gave certain balls away that allow certain transitions. We had chances again and missed a big penalty.

"That emotion was difficult to overcome and then we had to dig in. But credit to them. They are a big side and the moment you give them space and you hand them chances in transition they look a real threat. But overall it’s Champions League, get the win, clean sheet. Let’s move on.

"We played two nights ago with players coming from internationals after flying from Brazil and many countries.

"I was expecting a bit of a drop off. And the fact that we put so much in the first half and didn’t get the distance in terms of the scoreline, I think we paid a bit for that. Then we made life more difficult for us because we started give the ball away in not the right areas and then it was more open. That didn’t help.

“But we have now four days. Believe me, come Sunday we’ll be flying."

Mikel Arteta hailed Gabriel Martinelli’s performance

AP

Gabriel Martinelli made Arsenal's goal, the Brazilian's shot striking the post and rebounding over the line off Riznyk's back.

"He looked really sharp, really fresh as well," Arteta said of Martinelli.

"Fresher than anybody on the pitch because he could not start against Bournemouth and you could tell that was different to the rest. He had another gear, he had another level of threat and he started the game really well. He had a great performance for us tonight."

In the absence of Arsenal's usual penalty-takers, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, Trossard stepped forward after the video assistant referee deemed Valerii Bondar's arm to be in an unnatural position, denying Kai Havertz the chance to score in an eighth consecutive home fixture.

“They made that decision," Arteta said. "The penalty takers are normally Bukayo and Martin. After that, we have two or three players who can take them and they made the decision. Unfortunately Leo missed it. As you said, it was an opportunity missed."

Arteta is facing a potential defensive headache for Sunday's visit of Liverpool after defender Riccardo Calafiori was forced off in the second half after appearing to jar his knee. William Saliba is suspended for the game after being sent off at Bournemouth, while Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu are currently sidelined.

But Arteta revealed his decision to replace Ben White with Mikel Merino at the interval was not due to injury.

"Ben, it was my decision to take him out," the head coach said. "He had a yellow card and we’ve played enough with 10 men in recent periods. They had a lot of density on that side, a lot of players on that side, so I didn’t want to take any chances there.

"With Riccy he had to come off because he felt something. I don’t know the extent of it so in that sense not great news."