Arteta - Squad will cope with absences

Mikel Arteta believes the Arsenal squad must prove itself strong enough to deal with the absence of some key personnel.

Theo Walcott has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, while Arsene Wenger confirmed Aaron Ramsey has had a “little setback”.

Mathieu Flamini will also be missing due to the red card he picked up at Southampton, and Arteta said the squad must pull together now.

“We had many options but that is one problem we’ve had in the last few weeks: we’ve had a lot of injuries, [such as] losing Theo for a long time, Oxlade-Chamberlain is just coming back, too many,” the vice-captain said.

“Rosicky as well was out for a couple of weeks with his nose so we are a bit short at the moment but hopefully we can get people back.

“That happens and we have to deal with it. The schedule is really busy now - we have some really tough games coming up in the next few weeks and we have to deal with it and do our best.”

Arteta admits he had mixed feelings after Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw against Southampton.

“It was a very hard match,” he said. “There was a big difference between the first half and the second half but credit to them. I think they are a very good side with their pressing and they made it really hard for us.

“You couldn’t be happy with the first half because they put us in trouble, pressing high and playing on the ground - that’s when they are good at it.

“But I liked the reaction of the lads in the second half because we came out and did a completely different job, we played through the lines and were much more intense. That’s why we created the goals.”