Despite being 10 points adrift of fourth placed Chelsea, Mikel Arteta has said that he is still aiming for Champions League qualification despite there only being a Stoke handful of games left this season.

There are only 13 games left this season to make up the 10 points, and given we have only won six league games so far out of the previous 25 games, this would seem like a bit of a tall order.

Arteta said:

“At the moment we are far from it, it is very tight. Everybody is giving points away. It will depend on us, if we are able to put three or four wins in a row, we will be much closer…”

Hopefully on our return from the winter training camp in Dubai, we can kick off the final section of the season with a win over Newcastle at home this Sunday, the first of three home games in a row.

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After that we have Everton at home, the filling in an Olympiacos Europa League sandwich before we play Pompey away in the FA Cup. Then it’s another home game with West Ham as the visitors, before Brighton away.

Southampton away, Norwich at home, Wolves away, Leicester at home, Totten*m away, Liverpool at home, Villa away and our league campaign finishes with Watford at home. We are also away at Man City, but this game hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Fingers crossed Arteta has it right, 10 points isn’t a lot and there is a long way to go, I personally feel its a bit too big of a gap to claw back with just 13 games left.

Let’s hope Arteta is right, and I’m wrong!

Check out this video, the last time we kickstarted a huge league comeback to win the title!