Mikel Arteta says Premier League title race ‘not over’

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says the Premier League title race is far from decided despite his side slipping to second on the league table behind Manchester City.

Arsenal led the standings for 247 days of this season, but are now in second position for the first time after City defeated Fulham 2-1 on Sunday to pull ahead of the Gunners by one point with a game remaining.

Arsenal can reclaim the top spot if they defeat Chelsea on Tuesday night, while City can retake first place by beating West Ham 24 hours later.

“Now it is not in our hands,” Arteta said. “What is in our hands is to win our games. That’s what we try to do and the rest is down to City.

“I know what we’re trying to do. We have the nicest part of the season to play with five games to go. This is not over. I would pay a lot of money to be in this position next season, believe me.”

Arsenal would need to win their remaining five league games while ensuring that Pep Guardiola’s side suffer a setback twice if they are to end up as champions of the Premier League for the first time since the 2003/04 season.

When asked what Arteta has witnessed in the last week that gives him faith that City would lose the required points, the Arsenal manager replied, “How difficult it is winning all games.

“It’s not something that I saw in last week, if not they would have won every single Premier League game and they haven’t.”