Arsene Wenger: Arsenal must forget about Tottenham on Sunday

Arsene Wenger has told his Arsenal players to focus on beating Newcastle and forget about the fortunes of top-four rivals Tottenham.

The Gunners, who are currently fourth in the table, head to St James’ Park on Sunday knowing that a win will guarantee their place in next season’s Champions League at Spurs’ expense.

Tottenham host Sunderland and will be desperate to capitalise on any potential slip-up from Wenger’s men against the Magpies.

But the Frenchman insists that his side can ill afford to worry about anything but the task at hand in their last game of the season.

“We will not listen to [the Tottenham game] at all,” said Wenger.

“Certainly some members of my staff [might], I cannot control everybody. But I just focus on us winning the game because after you look at the results of the other teams.”

Wenger says he was not surprised to see the race for Champions League qualification go right down to the wire.

“You could see that mathematically it would be very tight but I was convinced of one thing, that seeing the attitude of the players, we will fight and come back,” Wenger added.

“I said to some players that we would have a great second part of the season.

“When you look at the points we made since 1 February, I think we are the best in the league and that’s down to the mental strength of the players and the focus of the players.”