Mikel Arteta says he has reminded his Arsenal players of how good they are following their back-to-back defeats to West Ham and Fulham.
The Gunners are now three without a win having also drawn 1-1 against Liverpool at Anfield last month, who they will host in the FA Cup third round on Sunday.
Arteta admits this season has posed challenges for the players with the return of Champions League football playing a part in that, but the Arsenal boss insists his players are not feeling drained by those demands.
“It’s not draining, I think they are incredibly enthusiastic about what they are living and they are loving it,” he said.
“But in terms of the demands physically, the amount of minutes, and what they have to deal with is something new because they haven’t done it.
“Last year they didn’t play that amount of minutes. I think we had one player at that certain amount of minutes, this season we have 14. That’s a lot.
“You reinforce how good they are. You accept, obviously, that there were periods in the game against Fulham that we didn’t hit the levels that we want to, to earn the right to win a football match.
“We accepted that and then moved on. Believe again in what we do and be consistent, continue in that role that has taken us so far, much further than a lot of people expected or imagined, and we need to continue to do that.”
Arteta could opt to rotate his squad for the FA Cup clash with their Premier League rivals at the Emirates, however.
“We have to give certain opportunities to certain players, that’s for sure,” he said.
“We’ll decide if Sunday is the right environment and the right moment to do that. That’s a question that we’ll have to resolve in the next two days.”
