The Spaniard is not giving up on Arsenal’s title dream (Picture: Arsenal Media)
Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal can still win the Premier League title despite sacrificing their long-established lead at the top of the table and wants to ‘put things right’ against Chelsea.
The north Londoners have failed to win their last four matches, shipping 11 goals along the way, and have now been leapfrogged by Manchester City after the defending champions edged past Fulham on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side only hold a one-point advantage – though do have a game in hand – and Arteta is adamant his Arsenal team will not give up on the title until it is mathematically impossible.
‘We can still achieve the Premier League. There’s five games to go and a lot of things are going to happen still,’ said the Spaniard at his pre-match press conference on Monday before hosting Chelsea on Tuesday night.
‘What we have to do is forget about what happened last week, learn from it and move on into the next game with full tilt, at home, with our people, London derby, and put things right.’
Asked about Arsenal’s run of 247 nights at the top of the table coming to an end, Arteta replied: ‘So tomorrow, 248. This is what I want. Win tomorrow and be at the top.’
When it was suggested this season would still be a success despite not winning the league, Arteta responded: ‘As a manager I don’t want to be using those words. I know what we were trying to do, or what the objective was, what we’ve been doing and we still have the nicest part of the season to play with.
‘Five games to go. When I still look at it, it’s like: this is not over! And I would pay a lot of money for next season in this moment to be this position again – a lot – believe me. So I just want to maximise the moment we have right now and go for it.’
Arsenal have only collected three points from a possible 12 (Picture: Getty)
He continued: ‘Win tomorrow, that’s what we have to do. And within the disappointment and the spirit around it, two things: the first one, recognise what a lot of people have done at the club to get us back into the Champions League.
‘It was already a difficult thing to achieve and not a lot of people were very optimistic that we had the ability to do it at the start of the season. So first of all, recognise all the good work a lot of people have done to achieve that.
‘And the second thing is what I like the most, is that even achieving that with six games to go – something that hasn’t happened in more than a decade at this club – we’re still not satisfied. We’re still upset and we want more.
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‘So we want to be the club we want to be: to be consistently with the best. That is the mentality that we need, and that is what I loved more the last few days.’
Chelsea interim boss Frank Lampard also believes Arsenal are still very much in the title race, saying: ‘Yeah of course [they can still win the title]. There’s enough games left for an element of jeopardy to be there – at the top end and the bottom end of the table, I would say. So I think they’re fully in it.
‘Manchester City have shown incredible form, I think we all respect that, but I think we also have to respect what Arsenal have done this year and they’ll believe they’re still in it – and rightly so.’
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The Gunners had spent 247 nights at the top of the table before Manchester City’s win at Fulham.
