Arsene Wenger insists that he hasn’t ruled Arsenal out of the title race just yet, unlike Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino with his side.

Wenger refuses to rule Arsenal out of the Premier League title race despite the Gunners currently sitting in fifth place, 15 points behind leaders Manchester City.

“I am not Pochettino, I am Arsene Wenger,” the boss said after losing 3-1 to Manchester United.

“I am 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.”

Although Pochettino hasn’t ruled Spurs out of the running once and for all, he did suggest that the gap between his team and the top of the table has grown too big after their 1-1 draw at home to West Brom, saying, “It is true the gap now is 10 points. It is massive in the Premier League, but now we need to be focused on trying to improve us and try to be more consistent here at Wembley.”

pochettino wenger 2
(DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty

Tottenham haven’t won a Premier League game since their narrow 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on 5 November. Although they’re still capable of playing some good football, media darling Pochettino isn’t quite looking like he genius he did a month ago. His side are currently down in sixth after drawing away to Watford at the weekend.

Not that Arsenal are doing that much better. In fact, there’s only a three-point gap – our North London Derby win – between us.

The difference is, Wenger’s stubborn and there’s no way he’ll admit his side are out of the title race before Christmas. There’s a long way to go, anything could happen, yada yada. And as silly as it may sound, at least it sends his players the message that there’s still something to fight for.