Freddie: No glory being an also-ran

Matt Hughes|Steve Stammers|Evening Standard

14 April 2012

Freddie Ljungberg insisted today Arsenal's players have no interest in finishing second in the Premiership.

Arsene Wenger's side appear to be fighting for second place after falling 10 points behind Chelsea with 10 games remaining but they refuse to concede their Championship defence is over.

Ljungberg said: "It's better to finished second than third but that doesn't really interest me. I want to finish first and that's all I'm going to aim for.

"We won't give up the Championship and will try to take all the points there is to take until the end of the season. Chelsea have some difficult away games coming up and we're confident they'll have a dip at some point."

Arsenal's pursuit of Chelsea was dealt a blow when they were held 1-1 at Southampton on Saturday. They appeared to be heading for a victory when Ljungberg gave them the lead following David Prutton's sending-off moments before half-time but the dismissal of Robin Van Persie allowed Southampton back in the game.

Having been booked for catching Rory Delap with an arm in the first half, the Dutchman received a second yellow for a late tackle on Graeme Le Saux. Saints took full advantage, with Peter Crouch equalising after 67 minutes.

Wenger was furious with Van Persie, particularly as he warned the youngster to keep calm at half-time, but Ashley Cole insists his team-mate should not be blamed for Arsenal's failure to secure all three points.

He said: " Robin hasn't let anyone down. I've done it before and I hope nobody blamed me.

"We don't blame individuals at this club. It's something that can happen in the spur of the moment. The game may have been different if we'd had 11 against

He's only young and will learn from it. I've been sent off a couple of times - sometimes you just go crazy for a few seconds - but no one's blaming him. There were 10 of us left with a job to do but unfortunately we couldn't get it done."

Wenger took different view. He said: "Robin has a lot to learn. How quickly he will learn will decide how big a player he will be. We know he shouldn't have done it and he's intelligent enough to know that as well. What is important is to show he can learn from that. I hope he will."

Van Persie's indiscipline leaves Wenger with a striker dilemma ahead of tomorrow's FA Cup fifth-round replay at Sheffield United.

Dennis Bergkamp, Jose Reyes and Van Persie are all suspended, so Wenger may ask Ljungberg to resume the role as stand-in striker he filled against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. He could also turn to youngsters Jeremie Aliadiere, who returned to the bench on Saturday after being injured in the Charity Shield, and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.

Robert Pires, who suffered ankle ligament damage in the tackle that led to a red card for Prutton, is definitely out of tomorrow's clash and faces a race to be fit for the return leg with Bayern next week.

He will be examined again on Wednesday to see if there is any chance of him facing the Germans.

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