The depleted Gunners played out a 2-2 draw with Liverpool on Sunday (27.10.24) and Arteta was proud of his team's characters in the absence of key players such as captain Martin Odegaard and key defender William Saliba.

Arteta said: "You don’t want to be in that position. You want to be five points ahead but this is where we are.

"The team is alive, the team wants it. I feel it every single day. The players that cannot play, they are upset that they are not playing. The ones getting injured, the ones that are there, they are in a good moment.

"Things will turn up and we are going to be in a better place, but we are certainly there.

"I see the team and I have no doubts. I think I told you three days before that we are going to be flying on Sunday and we started flying and were the better team by far.

"We needed to get the points today to make a reflection of where we are and where we want to be. We couldn’t do it but for sure we are there."

Arsenal led the match twice but were pegged back by the Reds on both occasions and Arteta was annoyed that his team couldn't hold out for victory.

He said: "I’m very disappointed that we haven’t won the game today.

"Very proud of the team, especially with the situation we are going through at the moment – probably you cannot imagine.

"I think in the first half it was total domination, we were really good, really dominant, really efficient and the result probably should have been bigger.

"Without conceding nothing basically, we gave two goals away. That’s the really frustrating part and that we couldn’t see the game out."