Mikel Merino says Arsenal cannot use their injury crisis as an excuse for bad results.
The Gunners have been hit hard by injuries this season and captain Martin Odegaard has been out since the start of last month.
Arsenal have had several fitness issues in defence too, with Gabriel and Jurrien Timber the latest to limp off during Sunday’s draw with Liverpool to join Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu in the treatment room.
The draw with Liverpool means Arsenal are currently third in the Premier League - and five points off leaders Manchester City - but Merino insists they cannot blame injuries for that.
“Injuries are part of the game and they cannot be an excuse for results,” he said.
“Injuries have pros and cons - one of the pros is that we are seeing young players make their debuts and be involved.
“As a club, you want to bring young players through from the academy, give them opportunities and you can see this is a club where everyone is able to do a really good job even though we don’t have important players like Martin Odegaard available.
“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, get better. There are always challenges with the physical and mental aspects of a long season, but this team is ready to overcome them. That’s why 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.”
