Arteta highlights importance of Arsenal's squad depth in challenging scheduleShareJurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori were the latest additions to Arsenal's injury list, but Gabriel Magalhaes returned against Brighton.Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal's upcoming schedule will be a "challenge", but one that they are up for.The Gunners beat Brighton 2-1 on Saturday to remain at the top of the Premier League table, staying ahead of both Manchester City and Aston Villa.Arsenal have won nine of their last 10 Premier League home games (D1), including the last six in a row. It is their longest winning home run since a run of 10 between April and December 2022.They will finish the calendar year on Tuesday by hosting in-form Villa, who beat Chelsea on Saturday, before a busy month in January.Arsenal are scheduled to play nine games in the opening month of 2026, including league fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United, the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final at Chelsea, and a Champions League fixture against Inter.Gabriel Magalhaes returned from the bench for the Gunners against Brighton, but Jurrien Timber was left out of the squad before Riccardo Calafiori aggravated an injury during the warm-up. City and Villa are both within touching distance of Arsenal, but Arteta insisted that he is only focused on his own side."We can only control what we do, and we are doing a lot of good things that I think we have to improve as well to have the margins better," said Arteta."We need more players back as well to have better options and maintain the team very, very fresh. Every three days is going to be a challenge, and we are up for it."At the moment, we've survived six months. So, let's see, there's another five-and-a-half to go. So, hopefully, things will get better."The good news as well, for example, we got Gabi earlier than expected, which is great. The medical staff, I think they've done an incredible job with the way he pushes himself as well. That's what we need because we lost one, and we got somebody else back."Overall, I think the performance was, against a really good side, very, very good."Arteta highlights importance of Arsenal's squad depth in challenging scheduleJurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori were the latest additions to Arsenal's injury list, but Gabriel Magalhaes returned against Brighton.Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal's upcoming schedule will be a "challenge", but one that they are up for.The Gunners beat Brighton 2-1 on Saturday to remain at the top of the Premier League table, staying ahead of both Manchester City and Aston Villa.Arsenal have won nine of their last 10 Premier League home games (D1), including the last six in a row. It is their longest winning home run since a run of 10 between April and December 2022.They will finish the calendar year on Tuesday by hosting in-form Villa, who beat Chelsea on Saturday, before a busy month in January.Arsenal are scheduled to play nine games in the opening month of 2026, including league fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United, the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final at Chelsea, and a Champions League fixture against Inter.Gabriel Magalhaes returned from the bench for the Gunners against Brighton, but Jurrien Timber was left out of the squad before Riccardo Calafiori aggravated an injury during the warm-up. City and Villa are both within touching distance of Arsenal, but Arteta insisted that he is only focused on his own side."We can only control what we do, and we are doing a lot of good things that I think we have to improve as well to have the margins better," said Arteta."We need more players back as well to have better options and maintain the team very, very fresh. Every three days is going to be a challenge, and we are up for it."At the moment, we've survived six months. So, let's see, there's another five-and-a-half to go. So, hopefully, things will get better."The good news as well, for example, we got Gabi earlier than expected, which is great. The medical staff, I think they've done an incredible job with the way he pushes himself as well. That's what we need because we lost one, and we got somebody else back."Overall, I think the performance was, against a really good side, very, very good."