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The Gunners have lost their footing, trailing 11 points behind the leaders with 12 games remaining after a surprising loss to West Ham.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has issued a defiant and passionate statement stating that he will not concede the Premier League title to Liverpool without a fight. Despite a recent setback against West Ham, which saw the Gunners fall 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool, Arteta remains resolute in his belief that Arsenal can still be crowned champions.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s upcoming match against Nottingham Forest, Arteta declared, “I’m not going to stop, over my dead body. If I think that way, I’ll go home. Mathematically, it’s possible. You are there. You have to play every game. Suddenly, three days ago, we could close the gap to five points. It doesn’t matter. We have to continue to go”.
Arsenal’s title bid has been hampered by a series of injuries and suspensions. Key players such as Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are out for the season, while Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are also currently sidelined. Captain Martin Odegaard missed 12 games earlier in the campaign due to an ankle injury, and the team has faced five red cards in their 26 league games so far.
Despite these and ambition of his squad. “If somebody tells you at the start of the season, by this time, you have played five times with a red card over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what’s the bet? 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, every individual has, and that has been probably one of the proudest moments in my time to work”.
Arteta’s determination is evident as he continues to push his team to strive for excellence. “When you are trying to build that momentum and we’re putting so much into it, especially with the circumstances that we have, the defeat against West Ham was a very hard one to take. On top of that, they [Liverpool] win. But the reality is that there’s so many games to play, and you have to get back to it. You’re going to have to set a certain amount of numbers to win this league. And we’re going to have to hit that number if we’re going to have any chance of doing that. But we’re certainly going to continue to try”.
The Gunners are motivated by Arteta’s unwavering faith in his team’s ability as they get ready to play Nottingham Forest. With the Premier League title still within reach, Arteta’s refusal to concede defeat embodies the fighting spirit that has defined Arsenal’s season. The battle for the title is far from over, and under Arteta’s leadership, Arsenal will continue to challenge Liverpool until the very end.
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