Mikel Arteta said he would concede the Premier League title to Liverpool "over my dead body" as he insisted Arsenal can still be crowned champions.
Arsenal’s hopes of hauling in Liverpool were dented by a defeat to West Ham and Arteta admits his side now need ‘something special’.
The Gunners have been Liverpool's closest challengers this season, and have progressed to the last 16 of the Champions League, but Arteta believes his side could easily have been dumped out of Europe and left battling in mid-table.
He continued: "If somebody tells you at the start of the season, by this time, you have played five times with a red card over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what's the bet?
Following the defeat to the Hammers - after which he criticised his players for failing to reach the standards required to end the club's 21-year wait for the title - Arteta conceded the championship race was no longer in his hands.
