Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos has claimed that despite the Gunner’s recent poor form, the club can still make it to a Champions League qualifying position, in an interview with the official Arsenal website, as reported by BT Sport.
The Greek center back scored the North London Club’s only goal in the painful 3-1 loss to Wolves on Wednesday night. The loss could well have ended the side’s hopes of qualifying for the Champion’s League, with rivals Chelsea a point ahead.
In the interview, the defender says:
“We have to look at the next three games where we need to win all three to get nine points,
“We’ll see if we can be in the top four. I trust my team 100 per cent, all of the players. I think we can do it.
“We know that we didn’t play well but we now have three chances and we have to win all the games.
“Of course (we get angry). The players want to play in the Champions League, we like winning and we want to be there. It’s not easy.
“We look towards the next game (at Leicester). It’s a difficult game. We know that now the chance could go, so we have to take the three points in all three games. I hope that we win on Sunday.”
The player’s optimism may not be shared by all fans, but it is certainly welcome amid deep concerns about the club’s ability to compete in major competitions under Unai Emery.
Firstly losing to 12th place Crystal Palace 3-2 and then to 7th place Wolves is reminiscent of teams like Tottenham Hotspur who famously failed to capitalise on a strong late-season position.
If Arsenal do fail to achieve a top 4 position in the Premier League, the team will need to win the Europa League in order to qualify for the Champions League. Although possible, this means beating a strong Valencia side and potentially facing London neighbours in the final.
More hopeful fans may point to Unai Emery’s brilliant past record in the Europa League, stating that the Spanish manager has won the competition 3 times with his side Sevilla, despite having an arguably weaker side to work with.
Fans and pundits alike are concerned for Arsenal’s season, but as Sokratis said ”I think we can do it”. The fixtures for Arsenal are much more winnable than the main competition for 4th place, Chelsea, who have to face Manchester United away in their next game.
