Graeme Souness has ruled Arsenal out of the race for the fourth and final Champions League spot, claiming it is a two-horse race between Manchester United and Chelsea.
United currently occupy fourth place on 51 points but the Gunners sit just one point and one place behind them having moved above sixth-placed Chelsea after the Blues’ 6-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Can Arsenal challenge for a top-four spot? Four key things to know…
- Arsenal went on a 22-game unbeaten streak across all competitions earlier this season.
- However, their recent form has been more inconsistent with the Gunners losing four of their last nine games.
- Unai Emery’s side are level on points with Chelsea (50) and just one behind fourth-placed Man Utd.
- Souness thinks the race for fourth place is between only Chelsea and United.
However, despite the margins between the three sides being so slim, Souness still insists it will go down to Chelsea and Man Utd for the final Champions League spot.
Ahead of Chelsea’s defeat at the Etihad, he said (via the Evening Standard): “It’s a straight fight between Chelsea and Manchester United for fourth now, but Chelsea will be looking over their shoulders because United are dangerous and, right now, the momentum is there with them and they are on a roll.”
When Jose Mourinho was sacked as Man Utd manager back in December, the Red Devils sat 11 points behind Chelsea who occupied a top-four spot at the time.
However, a remarkable turnaround in fortunes under caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has seen the Red Devils leapfrog the Blues in the Premier League table.
Souness, though, has warned that the loan-signing of Gonzalo Higuain has turned the Stamford Bridge club into a much more dangerous side.
“Chelsea will win more games with Higuain scoring goals for them,” he added. “But we will have to wait and see if he can take them to fourth place.”
Chelsea and United face off in the FA Cup fifth round on Monday.
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Arsenal’s unbeaten run created false hope, says Ian Wright
Souness isn’t the only pundit to write off Arsenal’s top-four chances this season, with former Gunners striker Ian Wright claiming their unbeaten run earlier in the season offered “false hope” of a challenge at the top of the table.
Wright told Radio 5 Live: “Going back to the unbeaten run, I think that gave people false hope in respect to finishing fourth.
“It was a great run but during that run, there were times in it where you thought, ‘Ooh, that was a bit tricky for us, could have done better here, could have done better there.’
“But the fact is that that kind of elevated everybody’s expectations a bit and I still feel top four is still out of our reach if I’m going to be totally honest.”
Arsenal have two ties against BATE Borisov in the Europa League before hosting Southampton in the Premier League on the 24th February.
The post Arsenal are out of the Champions League race, insists Souness appeared first on Squawka News.
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