David Luiz insists Arsenal can bridge the gap to the Premier League’s top two.
The Gunners were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool on Saturday as they lost their 100% record and the bubble burst on what had been an encouraging start to the season.
It doesn’t get any easier with the visit of rivals Tottenham next weekend but Luiz is adamant they have shown enough potential to at least be in contention for the top four, having failed last season.
To do that, however, they need to find a steely resolve – a criticism regularly aimed at Arsenal over the years – to prevent episodes like the one at Anfield.
The Boys ?
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?? @MatteoGuendouzi #ARSBUR pic.twitter.com/0XbAftlH2Z— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 17, 2019
And Luiz himself will have to cut out the mistakes as his tug-back on Mohamed Salah presented the Egypt international with a penalty which crucially made it 2-0 and took the game away from the Gunners.
Lucas Torreira’s late consolation papered over some of the cracks, although £72-million summer signing Nicolas Pepe, on his full debut, offered some hope from an attacking point of view.
‘There is frustration always, but I think you also have to be intelligent and mature to understand we did a lot of good things and we could have scored two or three goals before they did,” said Luiz.
‘It is always difficult to play there. Not many teams will go there and get points. I think you have to be clever to take the positive things and think about the future.
‘This club has the potential to shine like it has shone in the past. We have a lot of talent, we have players with a lot of quality.
‘Football is about the end not the beginning and we are going to have to try to fight to the end.’
Luiz’s £8m arrival from Chelsea in the summer was supposed to help stiffen up a brittle defence.
“I will never give up… I will never hide, winning or losing”#LIVARS pic.twitter.com/Kf7EEoygPM
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 24, 2019
While he still has some adjusting to do in his new surroundings he is confident they will continue to improve and has set himself ambitious targets.
‘I came here with the ambition to fight for the Premier League title, I want to fight for other competitions also,’ he added.
‘It was like that at the other clubs I have been at but it was not always easy, there were difficult moments.
‘I am going to try to do my best every single day and try to help everyone to believe in this because I think this club can believe a lot because it has a lot of potential.
‘Every week you have to think to get points and then you arrive in March or April and then you are there and then small details make the difference. So we will do that.’