Mikel Arteta says the next few weeks will be “critical” to his injury-ravaged Arsenal remaining in the Premier League title race.
The Gunners’ manager watched the Merseyside derby at the club’s warm weather training camp in Dubai fully expecting Liverpool to hold onto their 2-1 lead when his connection dropped out.
He received a pleasant surprise when he discovered Everton had scored a late equaliser, meaning Liverpool’s prospective nine-point advantage was down to seven.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Premier League match at Leicester City, Arteta said: “It was a funny one because I was watching the tablet and I lost connection so we didn’t know exactly what was going on. But that's the beauty of football.
“When the gap becomes a bit smaller than you expected, it’s always really positive. You need that.
“Generating momentum and the next few weeks are going to be critical as well to understand where we are after the international break, with six or seven weeks to go in the season.”
Arteta must try to generate that momentum without top scorer Kai Havertz, who was ruled out for the rest of the season days after the club learned Gabriel Martinelli will be missing until March.
Having already lost Gabriel Jesus for the rest of 2024/25 and with Bukayo Saka expected to be missing until next month, he said he relishes the challenge of keeping Arsenal in the title race.
His team will try to close the gap to four points in Saturday’s early kick-off with Leandro Trossard, Raheem Sterling and Ethan Nwaneri Arsenal’s only fit senior forwards.
“There are certain things that we’re going to have to adapt, and it brings other opportunities because we’re going to have a different frontline of players,” said Arteta, who confirmed he will explore “every possible situation” when questioned about signing a free-agent forward.
“It’s going to give different headaches to the opposition. We've been through a lot and we have sustained the level of performance and results until this point, so we are more than capable of doing it.”
On how Havertz suffered the season-ending injury, Arteta said: “We were having a great camp in Dubai recharging, training, having some time off and connecting again with nature in a different environment, and then the injury happened in a very unexpected way.
“He was going to stop a shot after a set-piece, then he stretched the leg and felt his hamstring."
When asked what his immediate reaction to the injury, he said: “A big pain in the tummy, that’s the first feeling.
“First of all when you see a player in pain it’s a really bad feeling. Then you think ‘not again’, then you realise you have no time to do that.
“You support the player, start to look forward and then at the alternative and how the team is going to be able to continue to perform.”
