Mikel Arteta rates Arsenal’s top-four chances after Brentford victory
Mikel Arteta discusses Arsenal's hopes of finishing in the top four this season after their 2-1 victory over Brentford
Mikel Arteta praised his Arsenal team for taking a step closer to claiming a place in the top four with a 2-1 victory over Brentford on Saturday afternoon.
The north London side made it back to back wins in the top flight by sealing a narrow home victory thanks to goals from Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka in the second half at The Emirates.
Arsenal are solely focused on finishing in the top four this season, with the Gunners having been dumped out of both the cup competitions last month.
The win left them in sixth place in the table but within touching distance of their rivals as the race for Champions League qualification hots up this season.
The Gunners will now switch their attentions towards their crunch home clash against Wolves at The Emirates on Thursday night as they look to continue their push for Champions League qualification.
Asked whether the race for the top four is now in Arsenal’s hands, Arteta told his post-match news conference on Saturday: “It’s a long way to go but we are a little bit closer today because we have won our game and that’s what we have to do.
“You can see with the results how tough it to win in this league. We have to go on Thursday again.
“We need to prepare really well because against Wolves it’s going to be a difficult match and we’ll need to perform well to win and play better and better and better. That’s the aim.”
Arteta went on to insist that his Arsenal players must simply focus on their own results as they look to try and secure a return to the Champions League for next season.
Arteta continued: “The way I see it is now we have 15 games to go and we know, more or less, the amount of points that are going to be necessary in that fight and we’re still really, really far.
“So what we have to do is focus on the next match, don’t lose any height and this changes very quickly and will have a lot of turnarounds, I’m sure about that, you see it every week and we have to maintain everybody fit, that’s going to be really important, because we are a really short squad at the moment.
“Maintain everybody fit, maintain everybody with the right belief and the standards have to raise even more because we have to play better to win more matches.”
