Arsenal keep the flame flickering but are left praying for favours

Arsenal's players fear that the recent run of damaging draws may have fatally undermined their Premier League title challenge. There remains optimism inside the dressing room that the leaders Manchester United can be caught, while Arsène Wenger said after the game that he considered the title race to be "completely open".

However, there is also an admission that Arsenal's only real hope now is on their rivals slipping up and dropping points in the remaining fixtures.

Chelsea, who have taken 19 points from an available 21 to promote their chances, have to visit Old Trafford and Arsenal have United to play at home. United lead both the London clubs by six points, with five games to play but the reality for Arsenal, who have drawn five of their last six, is that they need favours from elsewhere.

"Of course the draws are costing us," the goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny said. "We want to win every single game and we know that every time we draw, we drop two points, especially when we need to catch Man United. But, thankfully, they are dropping points as well so it's not finished yet, although it's going to be very difficult."

"It's not in our hands and it has not been for some time and we have to rely on other teams to take some points off Man United. But they are not on top form, I don't think, and we have to hope that they are going to drop points. We have to focus on every single game and on getting the result on Sunday [at Bolton Wanderers]. We are going to fight until the end."

The defender Bacary Sagna was asked whether he felt Arsenal were drawing too many games. "I think so, to be champions," he replied. "Especially at home, we have dropped many points. From now, we need to look forward and we must not drop any more points."

"We have to play United and we have to win. They have some hard games coming up, it is not easy for them and it is down to us if we want to win something. We know that we have to win our last games. I believe we can do it."

Fatigue has become a major concern to Wenger. After the draining 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Sunday, when Arsenal conceded the equaliser in the 12th minute of stoppage time, the manager felt his players "suffered physically" in the second half at Tottenham. He is expected to keep changes to a minimum at Bolton and so he will ask the same players to dig deep once again.

Arsenal's biggest reason to be cheerful was the form that they rediscovered in the first half at White Hart Lane. "We played a good team but we played our own game, something we hadn't done for a long time," Sagna said. "We saw the real Arsenal."

Unfortunately, though, the real Arsenal tends to feature lapses and nervousness. The timing of Tom Huddlestone's goal for Tottenham on 44 minutes, which pegged Arsenal back to 3-2, ensured a jittery half-time break and Szczesny would leave his line recklessly to concede the 70th minute penalty that produced Rafael van der Vaart's equaliser. "We are a bit nervous at the moment defensively," Wenger said. "That's why we were caught. The second goal hurt us a lot."

Szczesny had no complaints about the penalty award for his foul on Aaron Lennon. "I did bring him down," the goalkeeper said. "He got the slightest of touches but it was always going to be given. I committed myself and he went down. He got to the ball first and it was a very good decision by the referee."

Hope, though, continues to swirl around the club, with Wenger and the players telling themselves that United will leave the door open. "We have games that we know we can win," the manager said. "At some stage, we know it will be down to us."

Source: David Hytner, The Guardian on 21 Apr 11