Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are still gunning for the Premier League title as he praised his squad for refusing to settle for Champions League qualification.
Having topped the table for much of the season, Arsenal slipped from the summit following Manchester City's 2-1 win at Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
City have now won eight successive league games, including a 4-1 humbling of the Gunners last week which put a fifth title in six years in their own hands.
Conversely, Arsenal have taken just three points from their last four fixtures but their form over the course of the campaign has at least guaranteed a return to Champions League football after six seasons away from Europe's top table.
While City are now favourites, Arteta will be aiming for a return to form when struggling Chelsea visit the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night as he refused to rule Arsenal out of the hunt.
"We have achieved what was difficult to achieve and we can still achieve the Premier league because there are five games to go and a lot of things are going to happen still," he said.
"Now the title race is not in our hands anymore. What is in our hands is to try to win the games we have left and the rest is down to City.
"What we have to do is forget about what happened last week, learn from it and move on to the next game with a full tilt at home, with our people, London derby, and put things right.
"I know what we were trying to do, what the objective was what we've been doing and we still have the nicest part of the season to play with five games to go. But when I still look at it, this is not over.
"I am incredibly proud and thankful to everyone who has contributed to bringing Champions League football back to this club with five or six games to go, it is something that hasn't happened in over a decade in this football club.
"So congratulations but also thank you for still being upset and not accepting that Champions League is not enough and we want more because this squad is going to demand to get what we want."
Victory over Chelsea would take Arsenal back to the top of the table for at least 24 hours having led the pack for 247 nights so far this season.
The Blues, having spent a reported £600 million (€682.9m) on players in the last two transfer windows, are on a run of eight games without a win and have Frank Lampard as interim boss following the sacking of Graham Potter in April.
Arteta, though, believes Chelsea's plight is proof a club needs more than just a huge transfer budget to be successful.
"In our model we have very important things," he said.
"First of all, is to have the right people and I think we have the right people. Then we have the right players who can compete, they can challenge, they can understand their role within the team.
"You need quality, goal threat, physicality, you need a lot of things in this game and that is extremely difficult to find that thin balance with the players.
"Recruiting is just... you have the best intention but then the player has to come here, has to fit in, has to get that chemistry with the manager, the team-mates, the staff, the country. It is not easy at all so credit to everybody who makes those decisions as well.
"They have exceptional talent. If they make that work, they can do anything because they have the players, they have the infrastructure they have the history to do it."
Lampard insists he still loves being at Chelsea and is relishing the challenge of turning the club's fortunes around despite losing all five of his games in charge since returning to the club earlier this month for a second spell as manager.
Chelsea were booed off at half-time during last week’s 2-0 home defeat to Brentford, and sit six points adrift of the Premier League’s top 10.
When asked if he still relished coming into work, Lampard said: "Absolutely. My eyes were open when I came into this job.
"I’m too experienced in football as a player and now as a coach to understand that things don’t necessarily change over night in terms of results and we’ve seen that.
"Our job is to work on performances and mentality of the group in training to try and bring back a good feeling. That only comes with hard work.
"I enjoy that challenge and I was very aware of it coming in. I’m very proud to manage the club. I love being here and I enjoy doing my job.
"The reality in football is your career will not always be full of success. People will always remember the success, but part of the job is the tougher moments, whether you’re a manager or a player.
"You can’t always control the results, but you can control how you work every day, so I enjoy that aspect of it."
Chelsea’s Champions League hopes have also been dashed under Lampard after a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid and the former Blues midfielder faces another huge test of his managerial credentials against the Gunners.
"We’re not in a great moment are we?" Lampard said. "But I’ve been able to live this now for a few weeks. I also lived maybe 10 years of incredible success here and saw it continue, and was part of it again, and saw it continue.
"It can be pretty normal, if you look at the history of all of the top clubs in the league, (there are) moments of tough periods.
"Our opponents (on Tuesday) are good example of that. They want to be challenging for Premier Leagues and they are again now and it’s been a while for them.
"I think we have to put perspective on it and understand that we’ve got to work on all aspects of the club to get back the feeling and position of where we want to be.
"It’s not a given in this league and there’s a lot of work to do."
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could feature again after stepping off the bench against Brentford and Kai Havertz is back in contention after injury.
But Kalidou Koulibaly (calf) is still out and could miss the rest of the season.
Mason Mount (pelvis) and Reece James (hamstring) are also unlikely to appear in Chelsea’s last six matches and Marc Cucurella faces two more weeks on the sidelines.
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