Can Mikel Arteta end Arsenal’s 20-year wait for a league title? (Photo: Getty)
Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal will need to score between 96 to 100 points in order to beat Manchester City and Liverpool to the title.
It is looking pretty certain that one of the three clubs will lift the Premier League trophy at season’s end, and though the Citizens remain the favourites, three straight draws have allowed their rivals to overtake them in the table.
After 14 games, Arsenal lead the title race with 33 points, two ahead of Liverpool and three clear of City.
The Gunners are expected to at least maintain that lead when they travel to struggling Luton on Tuesday, while Liverpool visit bottom side Sheffield United and City face a tricky test at high-flying Aston Villa.
But of course the Citizens and the Reds have been imperious over the past few seasons and have both won the title with the highest points tallies in Premier League history.
City won in 2017/18 with 100 points and Liverpool scored 99 in the 2019/20 campaign, while in 2018/19 the former triumphed with 98, finishing just a point ahead of the latter.
And Arteta believes his side will have to match those achievements if they are to end their 20-year wait for a league title.
Man City won the Premier League title with a record 100 points in 2017/18 (Photo: Getty)
In his pre-Luton press conference on Monday, the Arsenal manager said: ‘Do I have a target? Yes. 96-100 I think you win the league. That is the cushion.’
Based on Arteta’s logic, Arsenal can only afford to drop nine more points this season, a tall order given that his side finished last season with 84 points, five less than champions City.
Asked what he thought of City’s recent slip up, Arteta added: ‘Do I take encouragement from that? No.
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‘The encouragement comes from watching the team play, watching them behave every day and how hungry and willing they are to approach every training session.
‘That’s what gives me encouragement. What the others do is something that we cannot control.
‘I think about how we’re going to play better tomorrow and be more consistent and be more difficult to beat and the things that we need to tweak and how we can use our players in the best possible ways to win. It’s still a huge marathon ahead of us.’
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‘Do I have a target? Yes.’