Mikel Arteta warned Premier League leaders Liverpool that his Arsenal players will be ready to strike should they slip up in the title race from now until the end of the season. 

Arne Slot's side pulled nine points clear of the Gunners at the summit after their 5-0 thrashing of West Ham, recording their 14th league win from 18 games under the Dutchman. 

Liverpool still have a game in hand over the rest of their title rivals, with their Merseyside derby clash against Everton postponed due to high winds at the start of December. 

But Arsenal have the chance to move up to second in the standings with a win over Brentford on Wednesday, leapfrogging high-flying Nottingham Forest. 

Arteta's side are now unbeaten in their last eight Premier League games after their narrow win over Ipswich Town last time out. 

But when asked how hard it will be to catch Liverpool, Arteta told Sky Sports: "I don't know, and that doesn't depend on us.

"We have to continue to be like a hammer, be there every day, every day, every day. 

"And, I mean, if somebody wins all the matches, congratulate him and let's go to the next season. But if they don't, which in history hasn't happened, we'll be there."

Having seen the Premier League title slip away from their grasp in the final weeks of the 2022-23 season, Arsenal yet again fell short a year later to Manchester City. 

Their hopes for a first top-flight crown since 2003-04 have been marred by injuries, the latest of which seeing Bukayo Saka ruled out for two months after undergoing hamstring surgery.

While it seems that the Gunners are set to play another supporting role in this year's title race, Arteta firmly believes that his side can go all the way this time around. 

"Well, we're going to have to prove it," Arteta added. 

"What we've proven already this season, and I'm sure of that, if that had happened last season, by playing the amount of games that we played with 10 men, all the injuries that we had in the squad, for sure we were in the position that we are today in the competitions.

"So the team has made another step. The team is evolving to new circumstances. And now we have another one, which is more games with less players. So let's face it."

Arsenal kickstart 2025 with the Premier League's first game of the new year, making the short trip to take on Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. 

The Gunners have only lost their first league game in one of the last nine calendar years (W6 D2), going down 2-1 at home to Pep Guardiola's City on New Year’s Day 2022.

They remained unbeaten in all 10 of their Premier League London derby matches in 2024 (W8 D2).

Arsenal also scored 5+ goals in five of those 10 matches, as many times as they had in their previous 117 such games.