Arsenal ace claims ‘we deserved to beat Liverpool’ however confesses accidents ‘no excuse’
Mikel Merino insists Arsenal cannot make excuses for dropping crucial points in the title race.
Mikel Arteta‘s men squandered the lead twice in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with title rivals Liverpool at the Emirates. To make matters worse, defender Gabriel hobbled off with a knee injury which could sideline him for a few weeks.
Martin Odegaard remains injured, while William Saliba missed the visit of Arne Slot’s side due to being suspended. To make matters worse, Arsenal have suffered three red cards already this season, forcing Arteta to admit his side has a problem with ill-discipline.
Arsenal have now won just three of their last seven league games, to find themselves five points behind defending champions Manchester City. But Merino has told Arsenal to deal with their problems, and focus on winning games.
The Spanish international, who scored his first Arsenal goal in the stalemate with Liverpool, said: “Injuries are part of the game and they cannot be an excuse for results.
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“Injuries have pros and cons – one of the pros is that we are seeing young players make their debuts and be involved. When you are a group of winners, you cannot make excuses.
“You have to think about the things you can improve, and if you start making excuses you don’t give credit to yourself. You have to deal with it. Take the positives and get better.
“There are always challenges with the physical and mental aspects of a long season, but this team is ready to overcome them.”
Merino is convinced Arsenal will become a stronger team moving forward, and learn from experiences like the one last weekend. He added: “We are disappointed not to take three points against Liverpool, because the team deserved them.
“But we have to be positive about the way we played for most of the game. We will recover, we will regroup, watch the game again and learn from the things we did not so good.
“In the future we will be a better team, a total team and dominate the whole game.”
