Despite last weekend’s 1-0 loss to West Ham at the Emirates Stadium and the widening of the gap between Arsenal and Liverpool to 11 points, the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has vowed to sustain the challenge for the Premier League title till the very end.
When he was asked about conceding the title at this stage in the season, he assured, “Over my dead body. If not, I will go home.
“Mathematically it is possible. Three days ago, we could close a gap and you are like ‘you are one-and-a-half games away’.”
Arteta insisted that despite the magnitude of the task facing Arsenal, they still hold a game in hand over Liverpool and highlights their upcoming crucial encounter at Anfield on May 10th. He firmly believes that the title race remains within reach.
He, however, acknowledged the increased difficulty which he said would require extraordinary performance by his team to win the title under the current circumstances.
“The difficulty is higher than three days ago but if you are going to win the Premier League you have to do something special.
“If you are going to win the Premier League with the circumstances we have you will probably have to do something that nobody else has done in the history of the Premier League.”
Arsenal has been plagued by series of injuries to key attacking players including Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli who are still sidelined.
The Manager hinged his optimism partly on the team’s consistent performance over the preceding three months, saying, “The previous 15 games we had won 10 and drawn five – exactly the same as Liverpool with exactly the same goal difference.
“So we have been extremely consistent over the past three months considering everything we have been through.”
“When you are trying to build that momentum, and we put so much into it with the circumstances that we have, it was a really hard one to take,” Arteta said.
