Published: 3 December, 2015
by STEVE BARNETT

HECTOR Bellerin is confident Arsenal have the strength in depth to beat their injury crisis and get their Premier League title challenge back on track. 

The Gunners’ 1-1 draw at Norwich left them without a league win in November. To make matters even worse, Laurent Koscielny, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez all picked up injuries at Carrow Road – with Koscielny now the only one in with a chance of being fit to face Sunderland at the Emirates this Saturday. 

Bellerin insists all of the players in the Arsenal squad are “ready to step up” to the challenge, and urged his team-mates to “play better football” in their quest to climb to the top of the league table.

“I’ve said it before, there is great depth in the team,” he told Arsenal Player. “There are a lot of young players waiting to come through, and we have a lot of quality training with us every day. 

“They are all ready to step up, so obviously every single player on the bench can do the same job as every single player in the starting XI. We don’t need to worry about the injuries to Alexis and Cazorla. The only thing we need to do is go out on to the pitch with the right mentality. 

“We should have played better against Norwich. We made some mistakes and that cost us the game. We need to look at ourselves and realise that this is not the way. We need to push ourselves a bit more and play better football if we want to be at the top of the league.

“What happened on the pitch was not a great experience but we need to try and bounce back so we are ready for the next game against Sunderland on Saturday.” 

The strength in depth of Arsene Wenger’s squad will certainly be tested over what promises to be busy festive period for the Gunners.

There is hope that Sanchez will be back in time to face Manchester City on December 21, allaying original fears that the Chilean would be out for six weeks with his hamstring injury. 

Cazorla also faces a spell on the sidelines with a knee injury, joining a busy treatment room that already includes long-term absentees Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky. 

But there is some good news for the Gunners, with Theo Walcott expected to make the bench against Sunderland following a calf injury. And fit again Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain both came through the Norwich game unscathed.