Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit reckons that his former club’s title challenge is far from over.

Petit, who resided in north London from 1997-2000, seems to be trying to rival Arsene Wenger for the most optimistic person on this planet when it comes to Arsenal’s season. The Frenchman doesn’t just think the Gunners can finish in the top four, he reckons the title race could be blown ‘wide open’ if a couple of results go our way.

“The Gunners showed huge passion on Saturday and they need to hold onto that mentality moving forward. The way they played with desire and offensive flair reminded me of how we used to play,” Petit said.

“In the second half, I saw a great Arsenal team on the pitch – they showed fantastic character and personality.

“Arsenal will definitely make the top four if they keep that level of performance up.

“They are probably out of the title picture, but anything can happen – in 1998, we were 12 points behind in February and pulled that back.

“If City lose at United and then Spurs, it could be wide open again.”

Despite losing 3-1 to Manchester United on Saturday, having 33 shots on goal, Arsenal put in a strong second-half performance. We played as a unit and fought until the end when earlier in the season our heads would have dropped and Wenger’s men would have given up. Therefore, even though we’ve missed out on three points and our 11-month Premier League home reckon has been broken, it wasn’t a disaster.

This is exactly what Petit says. Although it’s very, very unlikely that Arsenal will get anywhere near Manchester City at the top of the table this season, they showed heart and desire, which they’ve been criticised more than once for lacking recently.

All we can do is move on to Southampton with our heads held high and hope our mediocre away record doesn’t get the better of us.