Despite falling farther behind leaders Liverpool following Saturday’s defeat to West Ham United, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta stated his squad will not give up on winning the Premier League title, stating that they had performed well in spite of injuries and defeats.

“We’re not going to stop. Over my dead body,” Arteta told reporters on Tuesday ahead of their midweek trip to third-placed Nottingham Forest.

Liverpool are 11 points above Arsenal, who have a game in hand.

Liverpool has been undefeated in the league since September, while second-place Arsenal has a mountain to climb with forwards Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz out for the season and wingers Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli both sidelined due to injuries.

“If somebody tells you at the start of the season that you play five times with a red card, over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players… you’re in the middle of the table at least,” Arteta said.

“That’s not the situation. So that tells you the resilience, resources, the ambition the team has.”

According to Arteta, Arsenal had earned exactly the same number of points as Liverpool in the 15 games played before the defeat to West Ham.

“We got that defeat and on top of that, they win… it was a hard one to take,” the former Arsenal midfielder said.

“The reality is, there’s so many games to play. And you have to get back to it.

“And we have the levels, the consistency and the hunger to go again.

“And that’s what we’re going to do on Wednesday.

“At the end you have certain numbers you have to hit to win in this league and we have to hit that number if we’re going to have any chance.”