Mikel Arteta hails Arsenal’s resilience after overcoming a fresh injury crisis to beat Brighton 2-1 and reclaim top spot in the Premier League
MIKEL Arteta praised Arsenal’s refusal to let their Premier League title challenge be ruined by injuries after they survived another debilitating 24 hours to beat Brighton 2-1.
Arteta’s side were rocked by an injury to defender Jurrien Timber in training on Friday.
Italy full-back Riccardo Calafiori then joined the list when he picked up a knock during the pre-match warm-up before the Brighton clash.
Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera were also ruled out, so Myles Lewis-Skelly came in at left-back and Declan Rice started at right-back.
Despite their fitness problems, Arsenal ground out their third successive victory by a one-goal margin in the league to reclaim first place.
Hailing Arsenal’s spirit in adversity, Arteta said: “What I like is that we are having a lot of issues and we are dealing with it in an incredible way.”
“You speak to Declan and tell him he has to play there and he said ‘Ok. I’m up for the challenge. I’m going to do my best’. That attitude is great to witness.”
Arsenal were on cruise control after Martin Odegaard netted his first goal of the season in the first half.
Georginio Rutter’s own goal doubled their lead after the interval before Diego Gomez reduced the deficit in the 64th minute.
David Raya had to make a fine save from Yankuba Minteh to preserve the victory in the final seconds.
“Very happy with the performance. We were so dominant, individually and collectively,” Arteta said.
“We all want to win so badly. We should have scored the third one and then it would have been different. We didn’t, so we had to suffer a little bit more.”
Arsenal are back in action on Tuesday when they take on title rivals Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium.
