‘I’m not Pochettino, I’m Arsene Wenger’ – Arsenal boss refuses to follow Tottenham’s lead and give up on title

Arsene Wenger has refused to follow in Mauricio Pochettino’s footsteps and rule his side out of the title race.

Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat at home to Manchester United on Saturday left them 15 points behind league leaders Manchester City having only played 15 games so far this season.

Tottenham were only 10 points off the leaders when Pochettino declared their hopes of winning the league over following a 1-1 draw at home to West Brom. Wenger, though, is not yet ready to throw in the towel.

“I’m not Pochettino. I’m Arsene Wenger,” he said. “I’m here to fight as long as I can.

“As long as mathematically it’s possible you have to fight. You cannot give any other message out.

“The game today has to make us angry and even more determined. If I’m a player I’d think ‘with what we have produced today we have a huge potential and to lose the game we cannot accept that’. That’s what you want. The players have produced a quality performance.”

An ‘angry’ Wenger could not hide his sense of injustice over a game that could have ended in an Arsenal win but for the phenomenal goalkeeping of David De Gea, who made a Premier League record 14 saves to deny Arsenal.

Any hope the Gunners have taking a significant chunk out of City’s advantage will likely evaporate if they do not return to winning ways swiftly by putting in a more “efficient” performance in front of goal.

“Every point you drop counts and City are so far in front that everyone makes them champions straight away,” he said.

“We have to worry about the next game and analyse really how can we be more efficient with the potential we have shown.”

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