Arsenal’s victory over Brighton felt like a match that had been played multiple times already this season.
The Gunners dominated play, missed chances and had to deal with injuries to key players – something that has tested their squad since the opening match of the campaign, with forward Kai Havertz missing with a knee injury since then.
On Saturday, Arsenal were without the injured Jurrien Timber and lost Riccardo Calafiori in the warm-up, meaning left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly stepped into the starting line-up at short notice.
There was some good news, with centre-back Gabriel returning as a second-half substitute following his injury lay-off.
Arteta said his side have been “surviving” the challenges thrown at them for six months and the injuries to key players are “uniting” the squad.
“At the moment we survived six months, so let’s see, there’s another five and a half to go, so hopefully things will get better,” he said.
“The good news as well, we’ve got Gabi [Gabriel] earlier than expected, which is great.”
This is the second week in a row where Manchester City have played before Arsenal and gone top of the Premier League, with the Gunners having to respond.
But Arteta says his squad are relishing the challenge they face as they try to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004.
“We can only control what we do. We’re doing a lot of good things that I think that we have to improve as well,” he said, adding that playing “every three days is going to be a challenge and we are up for it”.