After narrowly beating Everton 1-0 on Wednesday night at Goodison Park, thus leapfrogging Spurs to third in the Premier League, Arsene Wenger astutely told his team not to let up for the remainder of the season.
The Frenchman does not want complacency to creep in. In addition he doesn’t want his squad to think that they have guaranteed a top four finish, despite recording their sixth straight win in a row and overturning Spurs’ 12 point gap in seven weeks.
Wenger told The Sun:
‘We have learnt in the last months that, for example, we have taken six points in Liverpool in two weeks. They were 180 minutes of intense fight.
‘We want to keep going. We must not think that the most difficult bit is done.
‘The most difficult bit is still to do and to achieve it, it’s important we have humility, are focused and fight for each other.’
As the games have gone by – since we thrashed Spurs 5-2 at home a few weeks back – I have been worried about complacency kicking in. Thankfully however, the lads have kept their feet firmly on the ground and are getting on with the job at hand.
Now that we are above Spurs and are in third position, I expect us to remain there until the end of the season. But there are still nine games to go, three of which I think will prove more difficult than the other six, these being – Man City and Chelsea at home, and Stoke away. Apart from these three particular games, I expect us to bag every point available, optimistic I know!
I firmly believe that we have the team spirit, quality and belief to keep hold of third now, and our form has been superb since we suffered that 2-1 defeat to Man United back in late January at home.
Hopefully the squad maintain there current form and claim an automatic Champions League qualification spot, rather than finishing fourth and having a two-legged tie to qualify to Europe’s best tournament.
Keeping complacency out will prove to be Wenger’s biggest challenge from here on in, something I think he can achieve.
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Rio Ferdiand said: “We approach each match as if it was a cup final”.
That is the same attitude Arsenal must adopt. We must not think for one moment all we have to do is simply turn up and the game is already won. The team has to show much character, guts and resolve.