What Arsenal need to qualify for Champions League knockout stages amid play-off possibility
by Josh Holland · football.londonArsenal boss Mikel Arteta will be hoping his side can continue to kick-off following Saturday's 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest. The Gunners picked up their first Premier League victory since the start of October.
A run of four league games without a win had placed the north Londoners' title chances in limbo. However, Arsenal returned from the international break with a point to prove and dismantled high-flyers Forest pretty comfortably.
The fixtures come thick and fast for Arteta, with a tricky trip to Sporting CP. Without Ruben Amorim after his move to Manchester United, the Portuguese champions are now under Joao Pereira's stewardship, looking to cause another upset.
Sporting beat Manchester City 4-1 earlier this month and currently sit second in the Champions League league format on 10 points. With the first stage of the tournament at the halfway stage, each game has plenty on the line.
For Arsenal, the first four games haven't gone exactly to plan. A 0-0 draw with Atalanta was followed by back-to-back home wins over Paris Saint-Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk before they suffered their first loss of the season at Inter Milan.
Arteta's men are currently 12th in the Champions League table, occupying one of the play-off spots. The top eight teams automatically qualify for the knockout stages, with the clubs positioned ninth to 16th primed for a play-off encounter.
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The Gunners' fate does remain in their hands with four games left. Tuesday night's trip to Sporting is, on paper, the most difficult fixture of the final four, with successive home games against AS Monaco and GNK Dinamo Zagreb following.
| Pos. | Team | Points |
| 1 | Liverpool | 12 |
| 2 | Sporting CP | 10 |
| 3 | AS Monaco | 10 |
| 4 | Brest | 10 |
| 5 | Inter | 10 |
| 6 | Barcelona | 9 |
| 7 | Dortmund | 9 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 9 |
| 9 | Atalanta | 8 |
| 10 | Man City | 7 |
| 11 | Juventus | 7 |
| 12 | Arsenal | 7 |
| 13 | Leverkusen | 7 |
| 14 | Lille | 7 |
| 15 | Celtic | 7 |
| 16 | Dinamo | 7 |
| 17 | Bayern Munich | 6 |
| 18 | Real Madrid | 6 |
| 19 | Benfica | 6 |
A trip to Girona at the end of January will conclude the league phase, with Arsenal hoping their destiny has been decided. Three wins from four should be enough to earn them a spot in the top eight places.
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