Everton boss David Moyes says selling Mikel Arteta to Arsenal was a decision that had to be made.
Everton sold Arteta just hours before the transfer window closed, but Moyes said it was for the good of the club.
"I make the decisions here, so it was my decision that the player went," he said. "It wasn't the chairman telling me I have to sell the player or anything like that.
"Mikel wanted to go and we had turned down a chance to sell him last year.
"I said to him that I would create a team here that would be challenging for the Champions League, but we didn't manage that.
"If I had said, 'No, Mikel, you are staying on again', I think that would have destroyed him."
