William Saliba knows Arsenal cannot afford to drop any more points in title race

Defender William Saliba knows Arsenal have to win their remaining five Premier League games if they are going to become champions.

The Gunners returned to the top of the table after a 2-0 win at Wolves on Saturday night and are now level on points with Liverpool following their win at Fulham on Sunday.

Both sides could move further ahead of Manchester City, who were in FA Cup semi-final action on Saturday and do not play in the league until Thursday night – by which point they will have two games in hand.

The Gunners could move four points clear of City if they beat Chelsea on Tuesday night and with games against Tottenham, Bournemouth, Manchester United and Everton to come, Saliba says Arsenal cannot afford to drop any more points.

“Of course, anything can happen in the last five games,” the defender said.

“If we want something at the end we have to win. It will be very tough because we are so close to Liverpool and City but we started well today and we have to keep going.

“If we want to put pressure on, we have to win, to win and keep going like this. We know it will be hard but we are prepared.”

The victory at Molineux, secured by goals from Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard, was a good response to a difficult week for Arsenal following back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa and Bayern Munich.

“We know it’s really hard to come back after the two last games because we lost but we knew how important this game was,” he said.

“We came back with a win and a clean sheet. We are happy and we have to keep going like this. We have good experience from last year and this season too.

“We know it can be up and down very quickly so we are well prepared.”

Wolves are crippled by injuries, with all of their main attacking options ruled out or not fit enough to start.

But boss Gary O’Neil said Pablo Sarabia and Mario Lemina, who came off the bench against the Gunners, should be able to start against Bournemouth on Wednesday.

“I was trying to pick a team with the rest of the week in mind, trying to juggle it with just 10 available that can complete 90 minutes,” he said.

“It was a tough call but we felt we’d be able to produce that high-energy performance and get a couple of them a bit of a rest.

“Pablo’s groin settled down even further and hopefully it will do them both good not to have gone through 90 minutes and they will be feeling a bit better come Wednesday.”