Cech still believes Arsenal can win the Premier League title (Photo: Julian Finney)
Petr Cech insists Arsenal have time to make up for their pre-Christmas blip and still win the league.
But they have little margin for error to reach the points target Cech reckons they will need to lift the title.
Arsenal recovered from their back-to-back 2-1 defeats at Everton and Manchester City with a narrow 1-0 Boxing Day win over West Brom which left them fourth on 37 points.
Four-times Premier League winner Cech believes Arsene Wenger’s side need 87 or 88 points to claim their first title since 2004.
The fourth-placed Gunners would need a minimum of another 50 points from their final 20 games to reach the 87-point mark.
However they would only be able to drop 10 points between now and the end of the season to do it.
To underline how big a task it will be, hitting those heights would see Arsenal finish the season with their best Premier League tally since their last title victory 12 years, secured by their Invincibles.
Goalkeeper Cech said: “Overall you need to be consistent to get to 87 or 88 points and it doesn’t really matter how you get to that.
“If you have back-to-back losses then you have to go and make up for it in different games.
“Then you can catch up. It’s a long-term competition so if you have a period where you’ve not been particularly great, you can still make up for it. There are still enough games to make up for our blip.”
Arsenal trail league leaders Chelsea by nine points and also have Liverpool and Manchester City ahead of them on the table.
Cech said: “I also think it’s impossible for our opponents to not drop points. There’s still a big opportunity for us to close the gap now.
“Between now and the end of January, the table might look completely different.”
Arsenal midfielder, Jack Wilshere, currently on loan at Bournemouth, hailed Chelsea as the best team in the league right now after they crush Eddie Howe’s men 3-0 on Boxing Day.
But Gunners club captain, Per Mertesacker insists that when the Gunners get it right, nobody can match them.
He said: “It’s really down to us to show that we are good enough and can put the intensity in.
“We’ve spoken about that a lot of times - when we put in the intensity, when we match teams physically, we are almost unstoppable.
“But if you don’t do that, if you lack another five or 10 per cent, you won’t win any Premier League games.”
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