Saka: Arsenal’s title hopes are ‘not delusional’

Bukayo Saka has said it is “not delusional” to think Arsenal can still win the Premier League.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Newcastle saw the Gunners drop to fifth place in the table, seven points behind leaders Liverpool and five adrift of defending champions Manchester City.

Arsenal have not won the title since 2004 and finished runners-up to City in each of the past two seasons.

Saka has previously claimed that “this is the year” the Gunners finally end their wait and asked whether he still had faith in that view ahead of a daunting midweek Champions League trip to Inter Milan, the 23-year-old said: “For me I always live by the quote, ‘it’s not what you see, it’s what you believe.’

“But at the same time it’s important to not be delusional and in this case I don’t think it’s delusional to believe. If you look at our squad, the quality we have, the players we have and at the same time we’re only in November so I don’t think I’ve lost any belief. I don’t think anyone in the changing room has either.”

Saka has worn the armband on multiple occasions in the absence of regular skipper Martin Ødegaard through injury and is likely to do so on Wednesday evening when Arsenal face Inter in the Champions League league phase.

Pushed on whether he felt the need to address the group after a tricky run of two wins from their last five games, Saka said: “I think I would if I felt I needed to but I think it’s important not to overreact as well.

“Obviously there’s a lot of noise around the club and we lost two games and drew another one.

“But at the same time I think it’s important to stay calm and doing all of these things can at the same time create more calm but they can also create a bit more panic and chaos and I don’t think we need that right now.

“So I’m just doing my best to help the team in every way I can and if I need to do that I’ll do that for sure.”