'Over my dead body': Defiant Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal not conceding defeat in Liverpool title battle | OneFootball

Gunners have fallen 11 points behind the leaders with games running out after shock West Ham defeat

Not giving up: Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal will keep striving for the title despite Liverpool’s huge points lead

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insists he will only give up on the title race “over my dead body”.

Arsenal have had five dismissals in 26 league games, while they are currently without four forwards due to injury.

Arteta, however, is refusing to give up on chasing down Liverpool and has issued a rallying cry to his players.

Asked about giving up in the title race, Arteta said: “Over my dead body.

“If not, I’ll go home. Mathematically, it’s possible. You are there, you have to play every game.

Arsenal have been hit hard by injuries this season, with Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz set to be out for the rest of the campaign.

It means Arsenal are without a recognised striker and their attacking issues have been compounded by the fact that Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli will not be back until next month due to hamstring injuries.

Mikel Merino has been used as an emergency striker in the past two games and could play there again on Wednesday night at Forest.

Arsenal will be without Myles Lewis-Skelly, who is suspended after being sent off during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham.

It was the fifth red card the Gunners have received this season, which is two more than any other Premier League side.

“It’s been incredibly satisfying to work every day with the players and the coaches and the staff to try to overcome certain situations,” said Arteta.

“So 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, you know, and you are out of the Champions League. That’s not the situation [we are in].

“So that tells you the resilience, the resources, the ambition that the team has, every individual has and that has been probably in my time, one of the proudest moments to work in that sense.

“The thing is that when you are there, you want more and you want more and you want more. And I’m not going to stop, over my dead body.

“We’ll stop thinking that way and putting everything that we possibly can to increase the probability of us winning and being better than the opponent and hitting that performance and those standards constantly, regardless of what happens.”