Mikel Arteta has credited Arsenal's medical and performance staff after Christos Tzolis was deemed fit enough to start in the Gunners' 1-0 victory at Liverpool, their first Premier League win at Anfield since 2012.
Kai Havertz scored the only goal early in the first half, and Arsenal produced another strong defensive display to secure the result. Tzolis was a surprise inclusion in the starting lineup, having not played a minute since suffering a hamstring injury while on international duty with Greece a month ago.
Arteta praises medical team
Eberechi Eze was only named on the bench, with Arteta revealing after the match that the Englishman had been dealing with an injury concern of his own. Tzolis impressed at Anfield, working tirelessly and showing quality in attack, forcing Alisson into a superb low save and almost creating a second goal with a cross to the back post.
Asked what convinced him Tzolis was ready to start, Arteta said: "It's the energy that he had in training. When I asked him the question, how convinced he was. We had an issue with Ebs [Eze] as well, it was incredible that he was in the squad today.
"I want to give credit to all the medical and performance team. What they are doing with those boys is incredible. Every three days, to keep everybody at this level. These are the margins sometimes when you win a football match, whether you have somebody available or not. They deserve that credit.
"With Christos, incredible. He didn't want to come off, he wanted to complete the game. We took some risks, but at a point we decided enough was enough."
Recovery from cup exit
Arsenal's win came after an embarrassing Carabao Cup exit to League Two side Fleetwood in midweek, where they were knocked out on penalties following a wasteful display. Arteta said: "It was a feeling of 'how the hell can that happen?'
"How you can go out of the cup when you shoot 27 times, we had the chances that we had against a team that put one shot on target. Then you look so silly. You have to go to Anfield and say, 'how can I lift those players up?' I had the feeling that now was the moment.
"We're going to have to dig deep, half an element of luck at times, and for sure a lot of quality in key moments. We have done it."
