Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal can stay the course in the title race - because they can still score from anywhere.
Despite a glut of injuries to his front players and his mix ’n’ match approach to plugging those gaps, somehow the Gunners still keep coming up roses.
The Spaniard admitted that it was a roll of the dice as much as informed opinion that prompted him to throw on Mikel Merino in the dying stages with the Euro 2024 winner netting twice to down Leicester on Saturday.
But it paid off - and Arsenal’s chief was happy because it quietened a lot of the ‘noise’ surrounding his club following the injury to Kai Havertz that followed knocks to Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
He said: “We needed to show how much we wanted it - that regardless of what happens, we’re really going for it.
“We believe in the resources we have and the quality of our players. That we can still adapt and be competitive and win a lot of matches. We can still score. It can be a set piece. It can be in various ways.
The team has a lot of capacity in open spaces where we are dangerous as well. We had the ability to run - that’s what we needed. We’re a threat from every situation.”