Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal will give up their Premier League challenge “over my dead body” as he insisted the title race remains alive as long as it is “mathematically possible” for his team to catch Liverpool.
The Arsenal manager also said this season represents one of his “proudest moments” because his team have continued to push for the league title and Champions League despite their injury problems and the five red cards that have hampered their campaign.
Arsenal’s defeat at home to West Ham United on Saturday, followed by Liverpool’s victory at Manchester City on Sunday, left Arteta’s team 11 points behind the league leaders before their midweek trip to Nottingham Forest.
But the Spaniard has refused to throw in the towel, saying: “I am not going to stop, over my dead body.”
Asked if he really believes Arsenal can still win the league, Arteta added: “If not, I will go home. Mathematically it is possible. You are there, you have to play every game. Suddenly, three days ago we could close the gap and you are one and a half games away. It does not matter. We have to continue.”
Arteta said Arsenal’s standing in the league table and their ongoing Champions League campaign was evidence of their “resilience” and “ambition”, as most teams in their situation would be in mid-table and out of Europe.
“If somebody tells you at the start of the season, by this time, you have played five times with a red card for over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what’s the bet? That you are in the middle of the table, at least and you are out of the Champions League.
“That’s not the situation. So that tells you the resilience, the resources, the ambition that the team has, that every individual has and that has been probably in my time, one of the proudest moments.”
