Arsenal believe they can win the league, says assist-man Ozil

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Alexis Sanchez has suffered a minor injury setback that will keep him out of the Christmas and New Year period.

On Arsenal’s record in 2015: “We have had quite a positive year and stabilised our defensive record and improved our record against the strong teams in the Premier League, so it looks like we are on the right train going the right way”.

First-half goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud put the home team in control before Yaya Toure scored a late consolation for Manuel Pellegrini’s men.

Ozil endured a fairly slow start to life as an Arsenal player and frustrated fans with his inconsistency but in the midst of easily his most productive campaign with Arsenal he revealed what he changed back in 2014.

Mertesacker insisted: “We are not saying these are going to be easy games – that is not our approach or how we see the season”.

On Southampton, Wenger added: “I believe the most important thing is to focus on ourselves rather than them”.

Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna believes their English Premier League (EPL) title resolve will not be shaken despite a 1-2 loss to Arsenal as there is plenty of football to be played.

“We were delighted with the win”.

“Last season we played at City and we showed some different kind of match-plan”.

Speaking about the Barcelona tie, he said: “There is still enough time to think about the games against Barcelona”.

“We played better than Arsenal but for the second goal we made a mistake and that was decisive”.

The last team to lose five or more games before the midway point and still managed to be crowned champions of England were Everton in 1986-87.

“We do not have all of our players available at the minute so we had to come up with a way to win against City and to trust that way”, said Mertesacker. It’s a team game but you need these players in your team.

“It’s too early to say if we can win the league, but this win strengthens our belief”. “We have 63 points more to win”.

City host Sunderland on Boxing Day (December 26) before taking on Leicester two days later.

“We need to bounce back on Saturday”.