Despite their title rivalry with Manchester City, Thierry Henry has not ruled out Arsenal finishing outside the top four in the Premier League this season.

Thierry Henry shared his thoughts on Arsenal’s top-four chances

The Gunners are currently two points clear of second-placed City at the top of the table and have a game in hand over Pep Guardiola’s side.

The north London club are attempting to lift their first top-flight trophy since 2004 and suffered a recent hiccup – losing to Everton before a home draw with Brentford and then enduring a 3-1 defeat to City at the Emirates in a big blow.

But the title race took a fresh twist on Saturday as Arsenal scored two goals in added time to beat Aston Villa 4-2 while City were held to a 1-1 draw by promoted side Nottingham Forest to put the Gunners back in the driving seat.

However, it is worth noting that Guardiola’s team have won four of the last five titles while Arsenal have not finished in the top four since the 2015-16 season.

The Gunners suffered a late collapse last term and handed fourth spot to north London rivals Tottenham after a costly defeat to Newcastle United in May.

That has led Arsenal legend Henry to refuse to rule out the possibility of Arsenal finishing fifth again – or even lower – despite his old club sitting top of the table.

When it was put to him that it was inevitable that Arsenal would be back in the Champions League for the 2023-24 campaign, Henry told CBS Sports: ‘We’re not there.

‘I know people will tell me ‘come on Thierry’. No, no, no. When and if we qualify, then we can talk about.’

Henry was also quizzed about how he now felt about Stan Kroenke’s ownership of Arsenal having previously joined Daniel Ek in a bid to take over the club.

Arsenal fans regularly protested against Stan Kroenke’s ownership before this season

‘At the time [Ek] wanted to offer a solution to the fans, who were all saying ‘sell, sell, sell’ but sell to who,’ Henry added.

‘We offered a solution, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m an Arsenal fan, let’s win. It doesn’t matter.

‘We were there to offer a solution, you want it, you don’t want it, it doesn’t matter.

‘Now everything is OK, why would anyone want to disturb anything [by changing owners]? It’s all I wanted.

‘Whether it was me in or me out I wanted Arsenal to be successful. That’s the main point.’

source: metro.co.uk