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Wenger tells players: Get us top four

Arsenal face danger of missing out on Champions League next season

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has challenged his side to build on their FA Cup semi-final penalty shoot-out triumph by winning all of their remaining five Premier League matches to secure a top-four finish.

The Gunners will host West Ham tonight looking to move themselves back above Everton following what was a nerve-shredding encounter with Wigan at Wembley, where they were just seven minutes away from what would have been a catastrophic defeat for Wenger's beleaguered squad.

Wenger though insists all thoughts of the return trip to the national stadium on May 17 must now be put aside to secure another shot at elite European football again next season.

"When you are in a semi-final and you win, it releases a little bit of pressure on the team on that front but we want to bounce back in the Premier League," said Wenger.

"Therefore we want to finish strong, we have a battle with Everton and of course it's now down to consistency in our final games.

"It (five victories) is the target. Do you need it? Nobody knows but the target is of course to win every game."

Wenger added: "We just want to not imagine the consequences of not doing it, what you want is just to focus on doing it.

"That is where we have the focus, the quality of the spirit, we have the desire and we are slowly getting our players back, so the squad is not (so) depleted any more.

"I believe that they (Everton) have difficult games and we have difficult games, but we want to focus now on what we know we can do.

"We have a more complete squad and we want to win our games, no matter what Everton does. We want to finish in a strong way.

"We can finish the season well - we can finish in the top four, we can win the FA Cup - so it's down to how united we will be until the end of the season, and focused together."

Wenger accepts Arsenal will need to remain professional against a side playing with no fear.

He added: "West Ham are in a comfortable position, that means they can play without fear. So we know that in these kind of games it's very important that we have a good focus and a good tempo in our game."

 

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