Unai Emery admits it will be “very difficult” for Arsenal to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League this season.
The Gunners have been in contention throughout the 2018-19 campaign, and remain so with two games of the season to go.
They have, however, suffered an untimely wobble, losing three successive fixtures in the English top-flight and four of their last five.
A 3-0 reverse at Leicester put the latest dent in a bid for Champions League qualification, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles seeing red on another forgettable afternoon away from home.
Emery concedes that Arsenal now have it all to do, with their attention about to shift to the first leg of their Europa League semi-final.
The Spaniard told reporters after seeing his side mauled by the Foxes: “We are going to think about Valencia in the Europa League.
“We have a big ambition in this competition. It’s a semi-final and it’s going to be difficult also. Then we play on Sunday against Brighton, and we need to win this match.
“At the beginning of the season we knew it was going to be very difficult, and today it’s the same.
“Our confidence can go up, can go down. But the most important is to be clear in our minds and our way. Our way is to think of this semi-final and prepare for the match in the best possible way.”
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Arsenal’s cause against Leicester was done no favours when Maitland-Niles collected a second yellow card inside 36 minutes.
“Our game plan was to be strong in our defensive moments and in our attacking moments, to take our chances, attacking their back four,” added Emery.
“We started very well, we controlled the match with good positioning and defensively with not many problems. They controlled the possession but we were good on the pitch and we wanted to grow up in 90 minutes to take our possibility to win today, being competitive in 90 minutes and also being strong in our mentality.
“The second yellow card gave us a lot of problems to continue with our game plan with more efficiency. Continuing our idea with one player less was going to be difficult. It changed a lot, this red card.
“The players worked very well and I’m proud of them. With one player less, we continued our game plan, trying to be together, defensively strong, and in the attacking moments to take our moments. The first goal has conditioned the result. When we were better on the pitch with one player less, they had a counter-attack and scored the second one and finished the match.”
