Aaron Ramsey has admitted that Arsenal could still be in the Premier League title race if they had been more "streetwise" in the games against their closest rivals.
The Gunners were top of the table on New Year's Day, but have since slipped seven points off the pace and a top-four finish is now the best that they can hope for.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has claimed that injuries to the likes of Ramsey, who missed three months of the season, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere are to blame for their failure to sustain their challenge.
Ramsey agrees that the absence of several key players has not helped, but pointed at the Londoners' heavy defeats to Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City as another factor in their downfall.
He told Sky Sports News: "We've had a lot of injuries to key players at the same time which did affect us, but that's football. Things happen like that. Obviously you do have thoughts going through your mind about what could have been.
"The only games that have let us down this year are against the top five away from home: if we'd managed to nick a couple of results against Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea the gap would have been a lot smaller and we'd have been right there.
"That'll be something to improve on next season - we'll need to be more streetwise in those games."
Arsenal have picked up five points out of a possible 18 against their fellow title contenders this season.
Joe Fish
