Olivier Giroud says Arsenal will keep plugging away in the Premier League on the off chance Manchester City and Chelsea drop more points.
The Gunners sealed their sixth win on the bounce with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Newcastle and currently sit third in the table, one point behind City and just four behind Jose Mourinho’s leaders.
While a title push still seems unlikely – Chelsea have two games in hand and need seven wins from their remaining ten games to confirm top spot – Giroud says confidence is high in the Arsenal camp.
Speaking to Arsenal.com after his brace at St James’ Park, the Frenchman reflected: “It’s nice for the team because we are on a really good run, even if we were disappointed about the Champions League – we want to finish really strongly and finish in the best position by winning every single game.
“There’s still eight games to play so we need to focus on our games and step by step we’re going to see. First we need to win every single game and then after we need to see if City or Chelsea miss one of these steps.
“You never know, you have to believe in football and that’s why we want to win every single game.”
Elsewhere, Aaron Ramsey says the win against Newcastle was another to tick off the list as the Gunners target an 84 point haul; potentially the highest since the Invincibles hit 90 in 2003/04.
“It was a difficult game,” the Wales midfielder said. “In the first half we created a few opportunities and we took a couple of them.
“Maybe in the second half we took our foot off the gas and they game out and made it difficult for us. We did well in the end to hang onto our victory.
“[Monaco] was obviously really disappointing but we took the positives from it as well. We went over there and won 2-0 which not many teams have done. They don’t concede a lot there so we took a lot from that game.
“We’re on a good run at the moment and we just wanted to keep that going today. We came away with three points and that’s another game to tick off now. We’re looking forward to meeting up with our national teams and having a little breather from club football.”
Four tougher matches, Pool, Chelsea, Man U and hopefully the FA Cup Final.
Need to win them all to have a chance of more than one piece of silverware.
Not raising my hopes til after the Chelsea game. If in a good position then I’ll get excited.
7 points behind chelsea and they have one game still to go.. Look at the fixtures they have left. There’s only really 3 top teams for them to play and those are: us (away), liverpool at home, manchester united at home.. Rest of the fixtures they’ll definetly be able to see through I’d imagine. The league is over. Neither City or Arsenal can challenge Chelsea at this stage.
Our only realistic chance is a FA Cup title.
Its not over until its really over.
True but I think I hear the fat lady warming up in the wings…
Come on Hull!
Come on you tigerish bastards!!
Ffs I was pissing myself during that 2nd half but you’ve got to love our current form! As for the mugsmashers vs manc match…. come on you… er… absolutely no-one!
I still hate the Mancs too much. Plus they really don’t deserve that 4th place, so I hope for a draw, or at worst a Liverpoo win.
Three points and no injuries in a game at this time of the season is all that matters.
Am I th only one who wishes for Liverpool to beat united so united finishes out of Europe again?
I think I would take Liverpool over United or Tottenham for 4th place. I’m really hoping we push for 2nd; I fear Chelsea have too much of a lead for anyone to catch them. Citeh look more vulnerable.
Wrong choice. Manchester Utd will always have vast resources- it is very important for Arsenal that Liverpool are kept out of the CL honeypot, for obvious reasons
Draw would be best result considering were playing the scousers next
They believe they can climb the table. Why not?
Let’s take care of business and see where things shake out with 2-3 matches left. … Stranger things have happened in football.
This team… it can do the unexpected, time after time, whether good or bad.
Here’s hoping.
With our current form I think we can win all our remaining 8 games and finish on 84 points, that would be something quite incredible considering how poor we have been earlier in the season.
However I can’t see Chelsea dropping 10/11 points in their 10 remaining games. We’re definitely battling it out for at least 2nd with City though. I’d take 2nd place and the FA Cup this season.
I sense a Maureen king kev style meltdown…I’d luv it…just luv it…. With pundits handing the title to those cheating, lying, racist mob from west London already it would be the best feeling in the world to creep to the title on goal difference! Imagine Maureen’s face? I’d bloody luv it I would. That really would be a specialist failure! Come on you gooners!!!
Some statistical food for thought: In yesterday’s By the Numbers, 7amKO mentioned that there are numerous Arsenal players near the top of the league in interceptions per game. Arsenal actually lead the league by a pretty wide margin in interceptions per game (20.2). Unlike offensive stats like goals, shots, and dribbles, many per-game defensive stats don’t really tell you too much about how good a team is defensively. Because the better teams have a lot of the ball, they have fewer opportunities to perform defensive actions like dispossess the opponent, commit a foul, win a header, etc. So looking at… Read more »
A very nice and informative post, my friend.
Great stuff!
Rodgers OUT!
Ughh, just watched the mugsmashers vs manc wankers game. Dirty cunts. All of them.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Skertl punished for his stamp on DeGea to end the game.
But Rooney did something similar to their keeper by kicking him in the ankle when the ball was in the air. And Phil Jones had two pretty awfull tackles. But how about Gerrard, what an idiot. The most important game so far in their season, and he goes and does that. I think this was his very last game for Pool as I think Rodgers will be fuming. Gerrard Potentially wrecking their season yet again. I was hoping for a draw, but Liverpool showed United to much respect and never took the game to them. The Scousers will be seriously… Read more »
Well.. red card for Gerrard means no him vs us.
To tick off the remaining games as wins, Arsene needs to get the players fresh and be really smart in resource management. Walcott does not really deserve game time based on his last performances but it is critical to get him sharp. You never know how the injury situation will be at the end of season. You may need his speed depending on how the opposition is playing. Whether he leaves the club at the end of season doesn’t matter. He is part of the team now and whatever he can contribute must be used for the sake of the… Read more »
Yes. There is absolutely no room to play politics and like you, I do not care if Walcott is now likely to be leaving. He can be an asset so use him. There were some odd choices made at Newcastle, but I had expected Rosicky to replace Santi at half time and Walcott to possibly replace Sanchez at half time and they both looked off their feet and Webeck could have played on the left (though he was knacked also). That said, even if we have the interlull we need to rotate intelligently and keep the entire squad motivated and… Read more »
Chelsea is drawing hull by 2-2
My ass is tightening
That mop head Remy scored the winner then, Hazard is a cocky knob head too. I hate everything about them money grabbing arseholes, sickens my guts watching them going for the league. Got pure lucky today, also, Fabregas at Arsenal, i adored the man, seeing him in a Chelsea shirt hugging john terry, he just looks like nothing but an arrogant blue nose scumbag now. I cannot wait until Arsenal finally gets the better of Maureen, i hope we beat them at home, and it destroys their season. And they win nothing more.
Fuck fuck fuck. Outshot 18 to 8 and still won. Was really hoping for at least a draw. Would have been big by Hull.
Theyre the new ManUtd of the league, flukey and the ref gives them everything
Not a great weekend with the other results. The only
consolation is we are 6 points up on Pool and Spurs for the top 4 and certainly well with range of second. If we get second place and the FA Cup we will have to consider this a successful year and will put us in good shape for a run at the BPL, UEFA, League Cup, and FA Cup for next year. A stregthening at DM and maybe CB should really be all we need. Our depth has really improved this year.
In my opinion we still need another World class striker too.
I think Giroud is fine. His goals per 90 is better than most if not all the top strikers in Europe. Remember he has 13 goals and he missed 3 MONTHS!
I know Giroud is world class, hes a great striker, thats why i said “another” we need someone that will compete with Giroud, for he starts before anybody else. We need a striker that will step up in the big games, and that can score from nothing. 1 more world class striker would be a big advantage in my opinion, if Giroud gets injured again, we have not got a striker that will get us 25/30 goals a season. Sanchez is better with the free role..
i cant see us signing a striker next summer. with giroud and wellbeck as first and second choice supported by sanchez, walcott, sanogo or akpom if necessary it feels like arsene will think he is well stocked and look at other positions.
difference between a really good team and average team is often the quality of the strikers and the keeper. Chelsea got a draw because of a keeper’s mistake.
A world class keeper is worth his weight in points over a long season.
I hope Skrtel is banned against us. That was a vicious stamp on de Gea.
City n Chelsea will drop points, unfortunately we will, too. Let’s take it game by game.
I think we will be optimistic to feel we have it to win the title. Second and retaining the cup is a better bet. We need to continue to build on our consistency and be able to stamp our authority to close out matches better next season. With 9 games to go, its hard to see Jose dropping points enough for us to catch up. They will need to shed 2 losses and 3 draws which seems unlikely. Had Hull snatched a draw, it could have added a bit of tension but as is, the win will put them in… Read more »
All in all, not a bad weekend for us. We picked up a very useful three points at Newcastle yesterday – although as usual we made it hard for ourselves. It should have been at least 4-0 at half time, which would have allowed us to cruise the second period; instead we were wasteful, conceded a bad second-half goal and then yet again had to cling on for the win. I so miss the days when we used to go to places like St James’s Park and piss all over the opposition. We will never win the title again until… Read more »
Good points. We have a big goal difference advantage over the Pool so a win means 9 points in front is essentially 10 they have to get more than us, from 21 points.
So let’s hope we beat them, also to give us confidence if we play them in the Cup final.
Yes, thats why unlike many arsenal fans, I wanted Man u win. Man U winning last two games against Spurs and Liv has got them out of contention. Arsenal victory over Liverpool will just seal it. Plus, it’s good to have Man U in CL. They won’t win it but it will make them more tired at the end of the next season. Same reason I want Liv and Spurs to be in Europa too. It just makes things harder with their squads. If we finish 3 or 4 points off the top than that will make show a) tangible… Read more »
If we beat Reading in the Semi, which i think we will, i will enjoy the final against Blackburn! I cannot see LFC getting past them even!