Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has admitted that his side will not be in contention for the Premier League title come the end of the season, and a realistic target is a top four finish.
The Gunners have had a below-par start to the 2011-12 campaign, losing four out of their first seven games, the latest of which was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham in the North London derby on Sunday.
With the Manchester clubs racing into an early lead at the top of the table, the French manager believes the gap is already unassailable.
“At the moment we have to set ourselves a realistic target to get in touch with those teams who are fighting to stay in the Champions League. To say we will win the league is not realistic,” he told Sky Sports.
“We are 12 points behind Manchester United and Manchester City so it is not realistic today to say that we will win the league. We have to fight to come back into a much better position.
“We lack a little bit of confidence at the moment and just want to protect our result too much when we have one,” he concluded.
Arsenal have a home fixture against Sunderland next after the international break, but are clearly struggling with the loss of big name players in the transfer window over the summer and a growing injury list.
By Gareth McKnight
Football News 24/7
Amazing how fast the Manager has thrown in the towel. How do people with BiG ambition chat? “Winners never Quit”! “Quitting is for cowards”! “It’s never over until it’s over”! “The race is not for the swift, but for those that endure to the end”! “Courage is never found in a bottle, but in the little green shuts of recovery”!
Arsene must not allow another six years to go by to discover some players have given all they can, their best we have already seen. They are being paid to contribute nothing of value to the club or the team. It’s time to bring them in and say, you have until January to earn your place, we have to make drastic cuts. Every department have to raise their game, that includes the coaching team.
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Manager always aim as a winner all times
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What message does that give to a team when the manager admits defeat. Surely he should be trying to keep their ambitions alive by saying we can still win games, yes we’ve lost 4 but we can still be up amongst them, Wenger needs to instil confidence in the team not say we can’t. There’s no such word in the footballers language as “can’t”. We should be saying “we can and we will” win games. No more negativity.
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I don’t understand. If Wenger said “Yes we are still going to win the title”, people will say that he is deluded and relies on faith. He is only being honest, and from everyones point of view, that is THE ONLY realistic target arsenal can achieve in the league.
But lets hope for the best in the other competitions, gunning all the way to glory!
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WE are now officially shite get out kroenke andsack Wenger if only for the way he disgracefuly handled the summer transfers
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