Mikel Arteta salutes injury-hit Arsenal’s survival spirit in 2-1 EPL win over Brighton & Hove Albion

LONDON – Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s refusal to let their English Premier League title challenge be ruined by injuries, after they survived another debilitating 24 hours to beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 on Dec 27.

His side were rocked by an injury to Dutch defender Jurrien Timber in training on Dec 26.

As if that was not bad enough, Italy fullback Riccardo Calafiori joined Arsenal’s growing list of walking wounded when he picked up a knock during the pre-match warmup before the clash at the Emirates Stadium.

Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera were also ruled out, so Myles Lewis-Skelly came in at left-back and England midfielder 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 from Manchester City, who

won 2-1 at Nottingham Forest

a few hours earlier.

Hailing Arsenal’s spirit and togetherness 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.

“Yesterday we lost Jurrien and today we lost Calafiori in the warmup. Declan had to play right-back and you see the performance that he put in. That is the spirit and that is how much our players want it.

“You speak to Declan and tell him he has to play there and he said ‘Okay. I’m up for the challenge. I’m going to do my best’. That attitude is great to witness.”

Arsenal have struggled considerably with injuries over the last 18 months, with Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus recently returning from almost a year out of action.

Kai Havertz remains sidelined, while Brazil centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes came on as a second-half substitute to boost Arteta’s defensive options in his first appearance since early November.

“At the moment we survive six months, so let’s see. There is another five and a half to go. Hopefully things will get better. We got Gabby back today earlier than expected,” he said.

“We can only control what we do, and we are doing a lot of good things. We need to do better to have a bigger margin and we need players back to make sure we can keep everyone fresh. Every three days is going to be a challenge.”

Arsenal were on cruise control after Martin Odegaard netted his first goal of the season in the first half, before Georginio Rutter’s own goal doubled their lead after the interval.

But Diego Gomez reduced the deficit in the 64th minute and 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. We were a big threat but the margin of victory should have been much bigger,” Arteta said.

“With the amount of situations and open chances that we generated, it should never have been 2-1. But that’s the Premier League,” the Spaniard added.

“They scored with their first shot and then David (Raya) has to make a great save.

“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.”

Brighton’s German boss Fabian Hurzeler, meanwhile, chided his team’s lack of “courage or personality” in the opening period.

“In the first half, we were too passive, we weren’t brave enough and didn’t play with enough courage or personality. In the second half, we did all that. It’s about personality and courage.”

Arsenal are back in action on Dec 30 when they take on title rivals Aston Villa in a crucial clash at the Emirates. Brighton, meanwhile, travel to West Ham United on the same day. AFP