Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is refusing to write off his side's chances of lifting the Premier League trophy this season after the 2-2 draw with north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur left them eight points behind leaders Leicester City. A three-game winless run in the league has severely dented Arsenal's hopes of ending their 12-year wait for the league title. However, they still have nine games to turn their fortunes around.

The North London club are also attempting to become the first since Blackburn Rovers in the 1880s to lift the FA Cup trophy three years in a row and only the third club ever to do so, but when asked if the club were looking at the FA Cup as the most likely chance of silverware this season Wenger responded "you don't think like that."

"I believe the championship is far from being over," Wenger said to reporters on 7 March, on the eve of his club's FA Cup fifth round replay against second-tier side Hull City.

"Just to remind you we have beaten Leicester twice. so we have done our job against them. So people have more to look at the other teams, not too much at us on that front. And that we will not give up on the championship, we will fight on to the end."

Wenger described the game on 8 March as "the most important of the season," explaining that his view was that the next game was always the most important. So it is always the most important game of our life because it is treated like that by everybody else. And that is how we treat it. It is the most important game of the season for us because it is the next one," he added.