Mikel Arteta looked ahead to the visit of Aston Villa on Tuesday evening.
Premier League leaders **Arsenal**are only three points ahead of the Villans, whose club record equalling 11 game winning streak in all competitions includes a 2-1 win over their next opponents at **Villa Park**earlier this month.
With a squad afflicted by injuries over the last four months, the manager has a tough task of managing this symbolic meeting in the context of a stressful schedule.
“We have a really tough match. We know their level, what they are doing, but it's a beautiful game as well to prepare and play. They merit to be there. Look at what they are doing and how consistent they've been, and what Unai Emery has done with the club. I think they fully deserve that credit because they are doing it on the pitch where you have to show your level.
“We'll watch [the 2-1 defeat] back. I have a few ideas and things that we have to do better. It was quite cruel as well, the way we lost it, but we'll learn from it.
“We're going to be really aware of the situation and the timescale of certain players [returning from injury]. If you go from the front line to the back line, that's the depth that you need. When you look across the other clubs, they have 24 or 25 players, so there's nothing special in our squad.
“The thing is, we’ve had more injuries than expected, some of them not avoidable, I would say, but we want to be better, and we know how important the part of having the right availability with players is going to play in the season.
“The window is there. We're Arsenal and we have to be looking at it and saying ‘OK, what do we need?’ We have to be actively looking, and then can we do it or not? That's a different story, but our job is to always be very prepared because something can happen.”