Petr Cech believes that all Arsenal need to do this season is win over 87 points in order to be successful in the Premier League.

The former Chelsea goalkeeper believes that, since we dropped points against Everton and Manchester City, we now have to make up for it but it doesn’t matter how.

“Overall you need to be consistent to get to 87 or 88 points and it doesn’t really matter how you get to that,” he said to Arsenal’s official website.

“If you have back-to-back losses then you have to go and make up for it in different games. Then you can catch up.

“It’s a long-term competition so if you have a period where you’ve not been particularly great, you can still make up for it.

“There are still enough games to make up for our blip and I also think it’s impossible for our opponents to not drop points.

“There’s still a big opportunity for us to close the gap now. Between now and the end of January, the table might look completely different.”

Obviously, the only fly in Cech’s ointment is the fact that if our title rivals don’t drop points, it doesn’t matter how many we win back. We could win all of our remaining matches but if Chelsea are also victories in 100% of theirs, we can never make up that ground again. As he points out, it’s unlikely that they won’t but it’s also highly unlikely that we won’t either.

Petr Cech
Petr Cech during the Premier League match between Arsenal and West Bromwich Albion at Emirates Stadium on December 26, 2016 in London, England.

Of course, the Premier League is a marathon, not a sprint, and Arsenal did win their latest match against West Brom 1-0, but we’re going to need more consistency if we’re genuinely going to look like title contenders.

The competition is strong this year. Although, I understand that, as a Gunner, Cech can’t exactly say it’s a lost cause.

Well. Technically, it’s not.

Perhaps we all need to be as optimistic as Petr Cech?