London, Feb 25 : Arsenal's loss against West Ham United on Saturday saw Liverpool widen their gap in the points table to 11. With all odds now stacked against the Gunners, head coach Mikel Arteta boldly stated that 'to win the Premier League you have to do something special'. With a trip to City Ground scheduled for Thursday, Arsenal are in a position where they must win all their remaining games in the league, and that still may not be enough to overcome the massive deficit.

"Over my dead body" replied Arteta in a press conference when asked if Arsenal will be giving up on the title race. "If not, I will go home. Mathematically it is possible. You are there, you have to play every game, suddenly three days ago we could close a gap and you are like 'you are one-and-a-half games away'. It doesn't matter, we have to continue to go.

"The difficulty is higher than three days about but if you are going to win the Premier League you have to do something special. If you are going to win the Premier League with the circumstances we have you will probably have to do something that nobody else has done in the history of the Premier League," he added.

Arsenal are suffering a heavy injury crisis which has ruled out their only two available options for the forward position, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have heavily limited the side's attacking output.

Arteta had to start summer signing Mikel Merino at the striker position against West Ham, despite him having no experience in the position after the Spaniard had scored a brace against Leicester after being substituted from the bench.

"It was a very disappointing weekend. In the previous 15 games, we had won 10 and drawn five - exactly the same as Liverpool with exactly the same goal difference. So we have been extremely consistent over the last three months considering everything we have been through. We have generated that momentum and it was that weekend where we have to go again but we got a defeat. On top of that they win.' he said.

/IANS