Mikel Arteta has warned Manchester City that the title race is “not over”, despite Pep Guardiola’s side hitting top spot in the Premier League.
City beat Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage on Sunday, following on from their 4-1 demolition of Arsenal at the Etihad in midweek.
The Champions have now won eight games in a row in the league, while Arsenal have gone four matches without a win (having drawn three, lost one) – picking up just three points from a possible 12.
That has seen an eight point advantage at the top of the table disappear, but Mikel Arteta – speaking ahead of Tuesday night’s clash against Chelsea – has refused to wave the white flag in the title race.
‘The Race Is Not Over’
“We still have the nicest part of the season to play,” said the Spaniard.
“Five games to go. When I still look at it’s like, this is not over.
“I will pay a lot of money for next season to be in this position again. A lot, believe me.
“So I just want to maximise the moment we have right now and go for it. Win tomorrow [against Chelsea]. That’s what we have to do.”
Arsenal, who will be without William Saliba once again for Tuesday night’s game due to a back injury, have already secured qualification to next season’s Champions League.
Returning to Europe’s top club competition was the club’s objective at the start of the season, but Arteta says he is happy that qualifying is now not seen as enough.
“Not a lot of people were optimistic that we had the ability to achieve that at the start of the season.
“Even achieving that with six games to go, something I don’t think has happened in more than a decade at this club, we are still not satisfied. We are still upset and we want more.”
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Arteta added: “We have achieved what was difficult to achieve and we can still achieve the Premier League because there are still five games to go and a lot of things are going to happen still.
“What we have to do is forget about what happened last week and move on to the next game and put things right”.
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