Arteta's side were rocked by an injury to Dutch defender Jurrien Timber in training on Friday. As if that wasn't bad enough, Italy full-back Riccardo Calafiori joined Arsenal's growing list of walking wounded when he picked up a knock during the pre-match warm-up before the Brighton clash.

Ben White and Cristhian Mosquera were also ruled out, so Myles Lewis-Skelly came in at left-back and England midfielder Declan Rice started at right-back.

Despite their fitness problems, Arsenal ground out their third successive victory by a one-goal margin in the league to reclaim first place from Manchester City, who won 2-1 at Nottingham Forest a few hours earlier.

Hailing Arsenal's spirit and togetherness in adversity, Arteta said: "What I like is that we are having a lot of issues and we are dealing with them in an incredible way.

"Yesterday we lost Jurrien and today we lost Calafiori in the warm-up. Declan had to play right-back and you see the performance that he put in. That is the spirit and that is how much our players want it.

"You speak to Declan and tell him he has to play there and he said 'Ok. I'm up for the challenge. I'm going to do my best'. That attitude is great to witness."

Arsenal have struggled considerably with injuries over the last 18 months, with Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus recently returning from almost a year out of action.

'We had to suffer'

Kai Havertz remains sidelined, while Brazil centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes came on as a second-half substitute to boost Arteta's defensive options in his first appearance since early November.

"At the moment, we survive six months, so let's see. There are another five and a half to go. Hopefully, things will get better. We got Gabby back today earlier than expected," he said.

"We can only control what we do, and we are doing a lot of good things. We need to do better to have a bigger margin and we need players back to make sure we can keep everyone fresh. Every three days is going to be a challenge."

Arsenal were on cruise control after Martin Odegaard netted his first goal of the season in the first half before Georginio Rutter's own goal doubled their lead after the interval.

But Diego Gomez reduced the deficit in the 64th minute and David Raya had to make a fine save from Yankuba Minteh to preserve the victory in the final seconds.

"Very happy with the performance. We were so dominant, individually and collectively. We were a big threat, but the margin of victory should have been much bigger," Arteta said.

"With the number of situations and open chances that we generated, it should never have been 2-1. But that's the Premier League. They scored with their first shot and then David (Raya) had to make a great save.

"We all want to win so badly. We should have scored the third one and then it would have been different. We didn't, so we had to suffer a little bit more."

Arsenal are back in action on Tuesday when they take on title rivals Aston Villa in a crucial clash at the Emirates Stadium.

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M. Dowman

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