Oleksandr Zinchenko wants to ‘kill and destroy’ the idea that Arsenal is a club that only aims for the top four, saying the team and fans deserve more than that.
The Gunners are doing plenty to kill that ‘stereotype’ with their performances this season, currently sitting top of the Premier League table after 13 games.
Their 1-0 victory at on Sunday made it 11 wins from those 13 matches, with just one defeat, which has put them two points clear of at the summit of the table.
There has been a lot of debate over whether Arsenal can keep this up and challenge for the title, and although Zinchenko does not want to look quite that far ahead, he does want that to be the ultimate goal.
While Arsenal have been spending a number of years now trying to grab a Champions League place by the end of the season, the Ukrainian wants that narrative to be put to rest.
Asked about being title contenders, Zinchenko said: ‘Honestly, I don’t want to look so far because we have a lot of games ahead of us.
‘I can feel that this group of people, they are special. Starting from our staff and then all the people on our training ground, our fans, we believe in ourselves, every single game.
‘I think I would say that I got used to hearing that Arsenal, it means straight away in your mind, “top four, top four”.
‘I would say, I really want to kill and destroy this stereotype. We need to look further, and I think this team, this group of people, the fans, they deserve more. That’s what we need to do.
‘We need hard work in this and let’s see at the end of season. You ask me if we can challenge Man City and stuff? Of course, they are an amazing team, but you never know what can happen in football. We need to go step by step with every single game.’
, .
,  and .
