‘Over my dead body’ – Arteta vows Arsenal will keep fighting for EPL title

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta insists his team will continue battling for the Premier League title despite falling 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

The Gunners suffered a setback last weekend with a 1-0 loss to West Ham at the Emirates, further widening the gap at the top. Historically, only three teams have ever overcome an 11-point deficit to win the title.

However, Arsenal still have a game in hand and face Liverpool at Anfield on 10 May, keeping their hopes alive.

When asked if he was ready to concede the title race, Arteta responded defiantly:

“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’.

“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.”

The Gunners have been impacted by injuries to a number of key players this season and they are currently without Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli in attack.

Arteta feels those setbacks caught up with his team in the defeat by West Ham but he pointed out: “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.

“We have generated that momentum and it was that weekend where we have to go again but we got a defeat. On top of that they [Liverpool] win.

“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.”