Arshavin: Title challenge? We are playing for fourth...

• zocoss

  27 Jul 09, 19:51

  Arsenal star Andrey Arshavin fears scrap with Spurs, Everton, Manchester City and Aston Villa for fourth spot
  

   

  

  Instant hit: Andrey Arshavin celebrates on his way to scoring four goals for Arsenal at Liverpool last season

   

   

  Andrey Arshavin admits that Arsenal face a fight to stay in the top four after losing Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City. The Russia star insists the Gunners still have one of the strongest teams in the country but is expecting City, Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur to be pushing hard for Champions League qualification next season.

  After a stunning start to his career in England, Arsenal will be relying even more on their £15million signing from Zenit St Petersburg. And while Arshavin believes that Adebayor will be difficult to replace following his £25m departure, he believes it would have been wrong to hold on to an unhappy player.

  Assessing the summer comings and goings at the Emirates, Arshavin told Russian journal Sports Weekend: 'We lost a very strong player and bought a good defender (Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax).

  'At the same time, our team continues to be one of the best in the English Premier League, even despite the fact that Adebayor left. 'If he wanted to leave, then it wasn't necessary to keep him in the team. Especially if the player doesn't want to turn out for us.'

  Arsene Wenger is taking his time finding a replacement for the Togo striker, leaving many supporters to fear a repeat of last season, when Arsenal finished 18 points behind champions Manchester United.

  Arshavin insists only Arsenal, United, Chelsea or Liverpool can win the league next season, but he is also wary of threats to his side's Big Four status.

  'The champions will be exactly one of those four teams,' he said. 'With regard to the fight for the Champions League, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham will join them.'

  Everton, United and City are three of Arsenal's first four opponents, with Portsmouth making up what Arshavin sees as being a tricky start to the League campaign.

  But the forward seems to have one eye on his New Year's Eve celebrations when assessing the fixture list. 'The positive thing I see is that we do not play on January 1. On the other hand, we have a very difficult start, with four serious contenders at the very beginning.

  'Then will be the Champions League matches and getting into this tournament is one of the main objectives at the start of the season. It won't be easy, but I hope that we can handle it.'

• duanyuqiao

  27 Jul 09, 19:54

  at least he is realistic

• marcteng

  27 Jul 09, 20:11

  I beg to differ. we shall see 10 games into the season.

  every season say spurs challenging for 4 place, what happened to them in the past 2 seasons? as for city, buying is one thing, gelling together is another. lets see if they are top 4 material by November.

• Chris88110

  27 Jul 09, 22:13

  Originally posted by duanyuqiao:

  at least he is realistic

  He's being HUMBLE. I like that

• Bus&Soccer l0v3r (VO3x 1)

  27 Jul 09, 22:16

  Arshavin i glad u say we fighting 4 the 4th spot
  
  u all juz work hard if u all can, nvm if u all cant get trophy juz bring Arsenal to 4th spot can lia0
  
  
  5th spot also can if u lose 4th spot (i dun mind)

• Redster

  28 Jul 09, 15:42

  Originally posted by marcteng:

  I beg to differ. we shall see 10 games into the season.

  every season say spurs challenging for 4 place, what happened to them in the past 2 seasons? as for city, buying is one thing, gelling together is another. lets see if they are top 4 material by November.

  arsenal and liverpool have been 1st in the first 10 games for 2 years already