Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has insisted that his players have a duty to continue fighting for the Premier League title, no matter how big the deficit to Manchester City.
The Gunners are now 19 points off the pace following their midweek stalemate against West Ham United at the London Stadium, extending their winless run in the top flight to three matches.
Wenger remains reluctant to throw in the towel, despite the growing gap between City and the chasing pack, and says that Arsenal will never give up on finishing top of the pile.
"We have to focus on the next game and City is too far away to talk about the title at the moment," he told reporters. "But it is one thing to be far away and another thing to give up. You don't give up. The job is to fight as long as we can and give our best.
"It's not to focus too much on anything else. We want to fight, our job is to fight and to continue to give everything and see where we finish. City is City. You know very well what is going on. We faced that problem with City like everyone else in the league."
Only once in Premier League history have Arsenal claimed fewer than nine points from their first nine away games of a season.
