LONDON // Arsenal’s victory over Liverpool was emphatic, but Arsene Wenger is sceptical of his side’s hopes of challenging Chelsea for the title.
The win, Arsenal’s seventh in a row in the league, leaves them seven points off leaders Chelsea, who have played one game fewer but must visit the Emirates in three weeks.
“It’s not enough,” Wenger said. “We need us to be perfect and Chelsea not to be, so let’s focus on what we can master.”
He said realistic title hopes for Arsenal disappeared in the opening weeks of the season as they won two of their first eight games.
“We have the quality to fight at the top,” he said. “But we had big players out for three or four months and it’s difficult after the World Cup. We had a mountain to climb.”
Perhaps most encouraging was that, after recent seasons in which Arsenal have struggled against major sides, this was another win against a rival for Uefa Champions League qualification.
“This was a very convincing and important game,” he said.
The game was not quite as one-sided as the scoreline made it appear. Arsenal dominated for 15 minutes, were pegged back for 20, then scored three times between the 37th and 44th minutes as Mesut Ozil started to play.
He set up the first for Hector Bellerin with a 50-yard pass that Aaron Ramsey knocked inside for the full-back, then scored the second with a fine free kick.
Sanchez belted in the third and, although Jordan Henderson pulled one back with a 76th-minute penalty, Emre Can’s late red card and Olivier Giroud’s injury-time fourth sealed an Arsenal win that, as Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers acknowledged, ended Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League qualification.
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