Mikel Arteta is refusing to give up in the Premier League title race, and has urged his players to keep fighting until the very end in case something special occurs.
Saturday’s defeat to West Ham United coupled with Liverpool’s victory at Manchester City saw the gap grow to 11 points, albeit with the Reds having played a game more.
With 12 matches to try and cut that gap again, the boss is adamant that the challenge is not over as we head to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night aiming to get back on a run of form that could pull us back into contention should Arne Slot’s team falter.
“The reality is there are so many games to play, and you have to get back to it,” Mikel assessed. “You have to have the levels and the consistency and the hunger to go again, and that’s what we are going to do on Wednesday.
“Mathematically it’s possible. You are there, you have to play every game. Three days ago we could close the gap and you are one and a half games away [from catching them]. It doesn’t matter, we have to continue to go.
“The difficulty is higher than it was three days ago, but if you want to win the Premier League, you will have to do something special, and with the circumstances we have, you’re probably going to have to do something nobody else has done in the history of the Premier League.
“We’ve been in the other position as well very recently and we know how quickly things can change. You have to be there and we deserve to continue in that fight.”
The past few weeks had seen us string together an excellent run of form in the league, remaining unbeaten in 15 matches from November onwards, going stride for stride with the Reds who have been formidable this campaign.
Luck hasn’t been on our side given the amount of injury issues Mikel has had to juggle, as well as suffering five red cards which have hampered us at times. But despite that, the boss is filled with pride that we are inthe position we are, and feels that the way we’ve hung on in there in this campaign is one of the highlights of his tenure so far.
“In the previous 15 games we had won 10 and drawn five, exactly the same as Liverpool, with exactly the same goal difference, +23. So we’ve been extremely consistent over the past three and a half months, considering everything we have been through,” he added.
“It’s been incredibly satisfying to work every day with the players, coaches and staff to try to overcome certain situations. If somebody tells you at the start of the season that by this time you will have played five times with a red card, over half an hour in each of them, 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?
“But that’s not the situation, so that tells you the resilience, the resources and the ambition the team and that every individual has, and that time has probably been one of my proudest moments to work, in that sense. The problem is when you are there, you want more and more.
“I’m not going to stop - over my dead body that we stop thinking that way and putting everything we possibly can to increase that probability of us winning, being better than the opponent and hitting that performance, those standards constantly, regardless of what happens.”
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