Giroud explains why Arsenal must remain optimistic

Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud has claimed that his side must remain optimistic about their title chances, despite dropping even more points in the race for the Premier League trophy.

The Gunners failed to put a goal past Southampton on Tuesday evening, with goalkeeper Fraser Forster having a stunning 90 minutes and making no less than 12 saves.

The disappointing result means that the north London side are without a win in the league for four games, their worst run this campaign.

Giroud, who is Arsenal’s top scorer in the Premier League, scoring on 12 different occasions this season, told Arsenal Player, as reported by the club’s official website, that there is a ‘long way to go’.

It’s a long way to go and we just need momentum.

Hopefully we can start that against Bournemouth and then after we have a big February and March until the international break.

We’re going to see how it’s going to be but we need to keep our heads up and keep working on what we are doing well.

Hopefully we are going to have better nights to come, because tonight we were a bit unlucky and a bit sad to draw.

We had so many chances to score and we didn’t do it. We missed chances here and it could have been maybe 4-1 or 5-2 but their ‘keeper did well and it is hard.

You have to keep the faith and keep believing that you will maybe score. That is what we tried to do but he [Fraser Forster] had a very good day. He was always in the right position and did very well and it is frustrating.

Now we are five points from Leicester City so it is going to be a hard time in the few weeks to go and we need to get as many points as we can.

It’s not over – we need to stay positive and be more efficient in the next games to come.

Arsenal have a tough run of fixtures ahead in England’s top division, with the next test a trip to the south coast to face AFC Bournemouth, where they will come up against old Gunners forward Benik Afobe. Arsene Wenger’s men then face Leicester City a week later at the Emirates before taking on Manchester United.