Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Arsene Wenger not giving up hope of Premier League title for Arsenal

LONDON -- Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is "convinced" his team are still contenders in this season's Premier League title race, even though they have fallen 11 points behind leaders Chelsea after just nine games.

Arsenal's latest title challenge appears to be in trouble after they won just three of their opening nine Premier League fixtures, yet Wenger believes his side will bounce back and challenge Jose Mourinho's Blues for top spot in the final stages of the campaign.

"I have a strong belief we will come back and we just have to prove that on the pitch," he said. "I don't write ourselves off. We will let people do it.

"This [perception that Arsenal are out of the title race] is a little bit linked to mathematics. It does not consider who we played, how many times we play away, what is the quality of team we play against, what kind of missing players you had in the big games.

"Chelsea is in a strong position at the moment. It is not realistic to think we will catch back Chelsea very quickly. We have to get consistent results to have a chance to come back so I focused on the quality of the game and the consistency of our results before we think about coming back on Chelsea."

Wenger was then asked about the prospect of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea emulating his Gunners of 2003-04 by going through an entire Premier League season unbeaten.

"It is too early [to consider this]," Wenger said. "There are just nine games played. There is a long way to go."

Wenger also suggested the negativity surrounding his team's start to the season may have been misplaced.

"Attitude fantastic, dedication fantastic, but on the efficiency front, we can do better," was Wenger's summation of his side's opening quarter of this campaign.

"If you look at the chances we have created, our finishing was not always at the expected level. We give very few chances away, but the chances we have given away are of quality and that is where we have to do better."

If Arsenal are to entertain thoughts of trimming Chelsea's lead at the top of the table, victory against Burnley at Emirates Stadium on Saturday is a must and Wenger is expecting a tough test despite the Clarets being bottom of the table.

"They are better than their points suggest, that is what their stats show," he added of Burnley. "They have been punished because they have not taken their chances, but I believe that we need to be highly focused and have to expect to play against a strong team because they are.

"It will be a tough test and we want to be good enough to get around teams to stop us from playing. The quality of our passing has to be better, the quality of decisions has to be better. It is absolutely normal that teams try to stop us from playing."

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