Unai Emery won't be satisfied until Arsenal are one of the best sides in the football world again, rather than scrapping just to be top-four also-rans.
The Gunners head into the final month of the season occupying the Premier League's fourth and final Champions League place thanks to a run of 10 home wins in a row, one point behind arch-rivals Tottenham and ahead of another of their London foes Chelsea on goal difference — and with a game in hand on both of them.
Though his first target after succeeding Arsene Wenger last summer was to get them back into Europe's elite competition after back-to-back Europa League campaigns, Emery insists he has much loftier goals.
As Arsenal's last title triumph in 2004 moved further and further into the past, Wenger was ridiculed for claiming that finishing in the top four was like winning a trophy. But Emery has set his sights on ending that wait to be champions again, despite lacking the transfer-market spending power of their title rivals.
Emery, who won the French league with Paris Saint-Germain and three Europa Leagues with Sevilla, said: “Each moment for me and the club is a big challenge for results.
“I am here for that, for titles. To be with the best teams in the world, in the Champions League. To have the best players in the world.
“When I signed here, I knew Arsenal had targets, collectively and individually.
“I won titles in Paris and Sevilla and I think here we need to have the same objectives. We need to win titles, now and in the future. Now, to win the Premier League is difficult. But our progress is to be consistent in the present and the future and to create a good team to have the possibility to achieve that.
“We can improve spending money on players, but overall I want to develop with the players here, to see them progress.
“I want to create a big team here and fight against teams with more money than us, like Manchester City and Real Madrid. Our objective is to be with the best teams in the world.”
The Gunners are almost 20 points off the Premier League title pace after finishing 37 points adrift of 100-up champions City a year ago, but Emery insists they can one day close the gap. And he wants them to do it in a free-scoring style, with strikers Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leading the way up front.
Emery, whose side visit Everton on Sunday, said: “I want to score a lot of goals, with Lacazette, with Aubameyang, with other players. I want also to be stronger defensively with this team. I am here to progress in my career. I will enjoy the development of my progression with the players also.”
Midfielder Granit Xhaka and defender Laurent Koscielny are both injury doubts, but midfielder Aaron Ramsey should be fit after a groin problem.
