‘Over My Dead Body’: Arteta Says Arsenal Still Fighting For Title

Even though Mikel Arteta acknowledged that Arsenal face a historically difficult challenge to catch Liverpool, he declared he would give up on the Premier League title race “over my dead body.”

The Gunners, who travel to face high-flying Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, are 11 points behind the runaway leaders after losing to West Ham at the weekend, a day before their rivals won at Manchester City.

The result was a bitter disappointment for Arteta, whose injury-hit team have finished as runners-up to City in each of the past two seasons.

However, the enthralling Arsenal manager stated at his pre-game press conference on Tuesday that he would “over my dead body” take the title challenge.

The Spaniard said he would “go home” if he no longer believed the Gunners could catch Arne Slot’s Liverpool.

“Mathematically it’s possible. You are there, you have to play every game”, he said.

Arteta acknowledged the enormity of the task as Arsenal fought for their first Premier League title since 2004.

He said, “You’re probably going to have to do something that nobody else has done in the history of the Premier League if you want to win this Premier League with the circumstances that we have.”

He continued, “We will have to hit the number if we are going to have any chance of winning this league,” adding that “in the end, you are going to have to set a number of numbers.”

“But we will undoubtedly keep trying.”

Arsenal, who have a game in hand over Liverpool, have been derailed by a series of injuries, particularly in forward areas.

Bukayo Saka, who has been sidelined since December, is expected to return next month while Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are both out of the season. Gabriel Martinelli is also unavailable right now.

Prior to the start of the campaign, Captain Martin Odegaard’s ankle caused him to miss 12 games.

Arteta said he was proud of his team’s resilience and ambition, saying the 1-0 home defeat to West Ham had been a” very hard one to take”.

However, he continued, “You have to get back to playing the game because there are so many.

Source: Channels TV