Arsenal's dream of winning their first Premier League title in nearly two decades is now out of their hands after the 4-1 defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday. The Gunners are now four games without a win and only two points ahead of City.
The loss at the Etihad Stadium has placed further doubt on the north Londoners' title aspirations. According to Opta, the Gunners have a 7.9% chance of pipping Man City to the title, compared to the 92.1% chance for their league rivals.
There was, however, a positive from Wednesday evenings round of fixtures. Results elsewhere confirmed the Gunners' return to the Champions League for the first time since 2017.
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If Arsenal are to revive their title ambitions, they have to respond in perfect fashion against Chelsea next Tuesday. Frank Lampard's men visit the Emirates Stadium on the back of five straight defeats after losing 2-0 to Brentford.
With no game at the weekend, the Gunners will be hoping defender William Saliba can make a return to action after missing the last six games. In his absence, Arsenal have conceded 12 goals - 10 in the last four - and have lost the defensive security that dominated Premier League attackers for most of the season.
However, Arteta had previously claimed the game against Chelsea could come too soon. "We're still hopeful, but another week has gone by and he hasn't been able to train with the team," the Spaniard said.
"At the moment we don't have him. We are preparing the game without him and probably the next game [Chelsea] will come too soon as well. We have to go week by week at the moment."
On a positive note, Granit Xhaka was able to return to the Arsenal side after missing the 3-3 draw with Southampton. The Swiss international played an hour in Manchester before being replaced by Jorginho.
That means Saliba, Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu are the only current absentees for the clash against Chelsea. Elneny and Tomiyasu aren't expected to play again this season.
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