Arsene Wenger has warned his Arsenal stars that they cannot afford to lose any more ground in the Premier League title race if they want to overhaul leaders Chelsea.
Wenger’s side have fallen nine points adrift of their London rivals after a spluttering start to the season.
Arsenal have won only three of their nine league games so far and, with Chelsea unlikely to slip up against lowly QPR, they must improve that disappointing total this weekend when they play at home to bottom of the table Burnley.
Against that unpromising backdrop, Gunners boss Wenger acknowledges it will take a huge effort to climb to the top of the table and secure the club’s first league title since 2004.
“I don’t write us off — let other people do that, but Chelsea are in a strong position at the moment,” Wenger said. “I believe it would not be realistic to just think now that we’ll catch Chelsea very quickly.”
“We have to get consistent results to have a chance of coming back,” he said. “I’m more focused on the quality of our games and on the consistency of our results before we think about coming back on Chelsea.”
Fixtures:
Saturday (3pm GMT unless otherwise stated): Arsenal v Burnley, Chelsea v Queens Park Rangers, Everton v Swansea City, Hull City v Southampton, Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle United v Liverpool (12:45pm GMT), Stoke City v West Ham United.
Sunday: Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur (4pm GMT), Manchester City v Manchester United (1:30pm GMT).
Monday (8pm GMT): Crystal Palace v Sunderland.
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