Mikel Arteta has said he would give up on Arsenal’s title hopes “over my dead body” but added that his side will have to do something unprecedented in Premier League history to win it.

When asked if he would concede the title, Arteta defiantly said: “Over my dead body.

“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.” The loss to West Ham further highlighted Arsenal’s shortage of attacking with options, with Raheem Sterling, Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri the only available forwards at the moment. Arteta confirmed that injured duo Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are “progressing really well” but said they are still some way away from making a comeback.

The one positive Arsenal could take from the game was the return of Ben White, who made his first appearance since November after undergoing knee surgery.