Mikel Arteta has struck a defiant tone after a dangerous weekend within the Premier League title race, saying Arsenal would hand over the struggle “over my useless physique”.
The Gunners missed the possibility to shut the hole on Liverpool on Saturday, shedding to West Ham, earlier than Arne Slot’s Reds beat Manchester Metropolis the next day to go 11 factors clear on the prime of the desk.
Many commentators conceded the title to Liverpool after their victory – however Arteta is in no such temper to exit the race.
“It has been extremely satisfying to work daily with the gamers and the employees to attempt to overcome sure conditions,” he stated forward of Wednesday’s recreation towards Nottingham Forest.
“If somebody tells you initially of the season that by this time, you will have performed 5 occasions with a purple card with over half an hour in every recreation and you’ve got misplaced this quantity of gamers [to injury], what is the guess you might be in the midst of the desk a minimum of and out of the Champions League.
“However that is not the scenario and it tells you in regards to the resilience and ambition that the group has. That has been in all probability one in all my proudest moments in that sense. Once you’re there, you need extra.
“And over my useless physique will we cease considering that approach and placing every thing we probably can to enhance that.”
When requested if he believed Arsenal might nonetheless win the Premier League, Arteta replied: “If we will not, I’d as properly go residence.
“Mathematically, it is doable, you might be there and it’s important to play each recreation. Three days in the past, we might shut the hole and you might be one-and-a-half video games away, however it does not matter. We’ve to proceed to go.
“If you wish to win the Premier League, it’s important to do one thing particular. If you wish to win it with the circumstances now we have, you in all probability need to do one thing nobody else has finished within the historical past of the Premier League.”
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Man Metropolis’s match towards Liverpool within the Premier League
Heading into the sport towards West Ham, Arsenal have been unbeaten in 15 Premier League matches. Regardless of the setback towards the Hammers, Arteta was eager to level out how his aspect had been matching Liverpool over that interval in troublesome circumstances.
He stated: “Within the earlier 15 video games, now we have received 10 and drawn 5, precisely the identical as Liverpool with the identical objective distinction, which is plus 23.
“We have been extraordinarily constant for the final three-and-a-half months, contemplating every thing we have been via and we generated that momentum.
“It was that weekend the place now we have to go once more, nothing completely different to the earlier 15 and we received a defeat. On prime of that, they received so if you find yourself making an attempt to construct momentum, and we put a lot into it with the circumstances that we had, it was a really arduous one to take.
“The fact is there are such a lot of video games to play that it’s important to get again to it. We’ve the degrees and consistency and starvation to go once more and that is what we’ll do on Wednesday.”
