Arsenal will travel to St James’ Park this weekend without summer signing Noni Madueke – Mikel Arteta hopes the winger will be back in a matter of weeks [Jay Patel/SPP]

MIKEL Arteta insisted that “dominance and handbrake are two different words” this week as he hit back at claims Arsenal are too defensive-minded.

After seeing substitute Gabriel Martinelli grab a last-gasp equaliser against Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Arteta would have been forgiven for expecting positive press about his side refusing to give up against an opponent that reinvented the phrase “parking the bus”.

Instead, the Gunners came under fire with pundits criticising them for playing with the handbrake on and not taking enough risks.

Arteta, though, even cited having the most attacking goalkeeper in the Premier League as he painted a very different picture.

“If you look at the players that we have – starting from the keeper. A very attacking goalkeeper – the most attacking goalkeeper in the league by far,” said the Arsenal boss.

“The centre-backs, one of them in one phase is the most attacking one.

“The two full-backs, if you look at every stat, that’s it. We play with a player on the right-hand side [who was] attacking midfielder number 9 last year. How attacking is that? A number 9 playing in midfield? I’ve never seen that in the league. And then three front players who are very, very, much attacking.”

Showing complete confidence in his current risk-to-reward ratio, Arteta added: “I like to bet £1 to win £1million. One million to win one pound is not a bet I want to put on.”

Offering his own take on what he saw against Man City, Arteta said: “With my knowledge and my know-how, and how I analyse a football game, it was impossible for anybody to predict such a dominance from Arsenal throughout 96 minutes because it never happened in 17 years of Pep [Guardiola] as a manager.

“So if the narrative goes somewhere else and we talk about dominance, about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have a handbrake? Dominance and handbrake are two different words, but I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision.”

With Newcastle up next this Sunday, Arteta has enough on his plate tackling Arsenal’s endless injury woes.

The latest setbacks will see the north Londoners travel to St James’ Park without summer signings Noni Madueke and Piero Hincapie, who have been added to an absentees list that has already included Martin Odegaard, Ben White, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus this season.

That list was easing with just Havertz and Jesus facing unknown return dates. But now Madueke is sidelined, with rumours suggesting he will be out for at least two months. However, Arteta is hoping that the winger will be back in a matter of weeks after being forced off against City with a knee injury.

“It looks like he’s going to be out for a few weeks,” said Arteta.

“We don’t know yet, we are probably going to have to scan him next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on, and at half-time he was too sore, so let’s see.

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

Regarding Hincapie, Arteta added: “He picked up a little groin injury. We’ll have to assess him again in the next few days. There’s been a change of load, and he didn’t really have a pre-season after the surgery that he had. We’ll have to see in the next week or so how he is.”