by Oleksandr Zinchenko insists there is “no point” in continuing the season if he is not convinced Arsenal can win the Premier League title.
The Gunners ended a four-game winless run with a comfortable 3-1 win over Chelsea on Tuesday night to breathe new life into their title race.
Captain Martin Odegaard scored twice before Gabriel Jesus sealed the points in the first half, with a first league goal for Noni Madueke providing meager consolation for the Blues.
Despite the win, Manchester City remain favorites to claim their fifth title in six years.
Zinchenko won four league titles at City before joining Arsenal last summer and said on arrival at the Emirates Stadium that Mikel Arteta’s side should be fighting for the trophy rather than aiming for Champions League qualification.
Now the Ukrainian full-back maintains that position in the final weeks of the season.
“If you don’t believe, there’s no point in playing,” he said.
“So of course I do. When I just arrived I said the quality that everyone has here is amazing, even the energy.
“I said anything is possible in this life if we will work so hard. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
“Obviously these were three important points for us. In terms of reaction, we have recovered quite well after the last two games in which we lost a lot of points.
“The win is so important for us to get back to normal, for the mood in the dressing room and in terms of our position in the league as well. So, let’s move on.
“Unfortunately it’s not in our hands, but you never know what can happen in this championship. For our part, we must be focused on our performance. That’s all.
“We have to keep fighting because we have worked so hard this season.”
Zinchenko was caught out for Chelsea’s goal on Tuesday night, with the Arsenal defense once again unable to shut out their opponents.
Arteta’s side have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine league games and Zinchenko admits that’s not enough.
“The coach has already told us a couple of things we’ve done wrong, those we’ve done well,” he added.
“Obviously it’s not acceptable at this level to concede so many goals and we need to improve on that.
“But we are human beings, we are still learning and we are also such a young team, so I hope for the future we will do much better.”
The defeat for Chelsea means they have now lost all six of their games under caretaker manager Frank Lampard and languish in the bottom half of the table.
“We are hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of,” left-back Ben Chilwell told the club’s official website.
“He was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like this we should have expected to concede three goals.
“We’re probably a good team to play against, which has been the story of the whole season to be honest.
“It seems that every team that plays against us has a good match. It’s no coincidence. Many of the performances recently have been below the standard we have set for ourselves. The first half was another example. We have to look at ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal condemned the gleam of a laser in the face of Chelsea striker Mykhailo Mudryk as a fan was arrested over the incident.
Cameras caught a light shining in the direction of the Ukrainian international, who had been mocked after coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.
Mudryk had been close to joining the Gunners in January before instead signing for their London rivals and came under laser fire during the game.
A statement from Arsenal on Wednesday morning read: “An arrest has been made following the use of a laser during last night’s match.
“This behavior is dangerous and totally unacceptable and we will fully support the police in their investigation. Obviously we will take the strongest possible action.
The PA news agency understands that the Football Association will be investigating the matter and that the Metropolitan Police made three further arrests during the match for ticket propaganda.
