Instant hit: Andrey Arshavin celebrates on his way
to scoring four goals for Arsenal at Liverpool last season
Andrey Arshavin admits
that Arsenal face a fight to stay in the top four after losing
Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester
City. The
Russia star insists the Gunners still have one of the strongest
teams in the country but is expecting City,
Aston
Villa, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur
to be pushing hard for
Champions League qualification next season.
After a stunning start to his career in England, Arsenal will be
relying even more on their £15million signing from Zenit St
Petersburg. And while Arshavin believes that Adebayor will be
difficult to replace following his £25m departure, he believes it
would have been wrong to hold on to an unhappy player.
Arshavin insists only Arsenal, United, Chelsea or
Liverpool
can win the league next season, but he is also wary of threats to
his side's Big Four status.
'The champions will be exactly one of those four teams,' he
said. 'With regard to the fight for the Champions League,
Manchester City, Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham will join
them.'
Everton, United and City are three of Arsenal's first four
opponents, with Portsmouth
making up what Arshavin sees as being a tricky start to the League
campaign.
But the forward seems to have one eye on his New Year's Eve
celebrations when assessing the fixture list. 'The positive thing I
see is that we do not play on January 1. On the other hand, we have
a very difficult start, with four serious contenders at the very
beginning.
'Then will be the Champions League matches and getting into this
tournament is one of the main objectives at the start of the
season. It won't be easy, but I hope that we can handle it.'
