Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has declared that the Gunners will bounce back strongly from a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United last weekend, while admitting that a run of tough games took its toll at Old Trafford.

The Gunners suffered their second Premier League defeat of the campaign thanks to Robin van Persie's decisive strike on Sunday, but remain two points clear at the top of the table.

Koscielny believes that the international break has come at a good time for a fatigued Arsenal squad, before echoing the sentiments of Arsene Wenger that his team were too nervous in possession early on against the Red Devils.

He told The Sun: "We are still confident. The lessons to learn are that we were too shy in the first half and we weren't able to play our game.

"The second half was better even if Manchester United let us have the ball. But we'd played a lot of games so maybe we dropped off a bit physically.

"Now we have 10 days off and we will have to get the fire going again at home to Southampton."

The 28-year-old faces a busy fortnight before that clash with Southampton after joining the French national side for a two-legged World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, with the first leg in Kiev on Friday night.