Arteta: The absence of players kept me awake at night and I had to completely change my plans

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference after leading his team to a 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby on the 4th round of the Premier League.

Obviously I'm very happy. We know what winning the North London Derby means to our club and our fans, and we have the ability to make them very happy, so I hope we did it.

In terms of performance, we had moments of excellence and moments when we had to bear the pressure. We were under pressure because we had to adapt our game plan based on the players we had, and I like that. From the moment we got the news, the team was more and more hungry for this game. It's a huge credit to everyone at the club that everyone at the club responded in the way they did. It was a difficult week ahead, but instead of making excuses, we did the opposite. We rose to the challenge, played bravely and played with the quality we needed to win the game.

It shows the tenacity and mental toughness of the players we have. They love to play, and we all love to win. In order to love the game and win, you have to do things that people call "ugly". Being able to enjoy these "ugly" things is a huge compliment to the team at the moment. When you can do that, it's usually a nice gift.

It does have an impact because we have won three years in a row here. I don't know when was the last time in the history of the club that this happened and I think they have confidence. We have won a lot of important games and we have a big week ahead, which will give us a lot of motivation, energy and confidence.

Today there are obviously a lot of areas to improve and I think we didn't do a lot of simple things well enough, but we will do better.

As for Martin, we still need to see and we got the news that he can't play today.

In his field, in other fields, as a person, he is the best. The relationship between us, that's why I decided to bring him to Manchester City when I was there and then brought him to Arsenal. He and his team have instilled in the players a belief that there are many ways to win football games. It's a very strong belief and it has benefited us a lot, so hats off to them.

I don't know. I made two substitutions up front and he suddenly fell down. I looked at the bench and the options we had and we had to adapt. I don't know exactly what it was, but he couldn't play.

I didn't like it because I barely had sleep at night. I had been following Spurs four or five days before and I had a very clear plan. I prepared all the meetings, training and everything, and then I got the news that we lost a player, then another player, then another player, and I had to completely change the plan and adapt it to the players we had. So, it was a big challenge.

They adapted. Loving the game means you can make a difference no matter what the situation. Jorginho loves the game, he didn't play this one, but he loves winning. When he didn't play, he trained like a beast every day, even though he had won everything. When you ask him to play 90 minutes, which he probably hasn't played in the last five months, he can do it. The same with Juerien (Timber), he hasn't played a year and hasn't played 90 minutes at all. He struggled, but he did it for the team. And Kai (Havertz), I don't know how many minutes he played without pre-season, but he played unbelievably. All of them, that's the spirit and the quality we have and I love it.

I didn't want it that way. I wanted to press higher up the pitch, lose the ball higher up the pitch and in better shape. Given that we were missing certain players today, I didn't want to get caught up in the rhythm of the game that the other team was so good at, and I had to make a choice. On the other hand, the reward is much greater.

With or without, I'm sure we'll play on Thursday and Sunday, and then Tuesday, and that's the reality. If we want to be a top team, a competitive team, we have to adapt to this situation.

Yes, when they went from 0-3 to 2-3, you kept thinking it couldn't happen, they tried everything. They tried today, but I thought we looked more composed, better organized and lost less ball.

He has changed amazingly first as a person and then in the role he plays for the club and the team, and we are happy to see that. That's why we're here and that's one of my passions, to provide players with the environment, support and guidance to grow and prepare them for life and reach levels they may have thought before. Gabriel is one of the best examples of why. He loves what he does, he works really hard and he wants it. When that happens, good things happen to those types of people.

5-0, 5-0, but this game was special.