With Arsenal also out of the FA Cup, Arteta has a chance to take his team to Dubai for a week of warm weather training.
The decision to make the same journey last season was widely credited with triggering a run of form that took Arsenal within touching distance of the title and Arteta will hope for a repeat with his side still in contention to win the two biggest prizes available.
‘I wouldn’t like [to say that],’ said Arteta when asked if the packed schedule explained last night’s sub-par display.
‘Especially when we lose a game, physically we were tired and you know we played so many games, we played so many games every three days, and we knew that this was going to be a really high-intensity one.
‘I think emotionally as well, it was a very different game that we needed to get there to believe right until the end that we could do it, and before that the game got away from us.’
He added: ‘We need to swallow this one, it’s a tough one and we had a lot of expectations.
‘We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch a few minutes ago.
‘Now we have to look forward, first of all I think this is going to be a painful one, and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for.’
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