Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger accepted his side's title hopes are all but over after their 4-2 defeat by Manchester United at Highbury. It leaves the Gunners 10 points behind Chelsea, who also have a game in hand, and Wenger said: "We will not give up but now we are too far behind.
"It is Chelsea's title now. United still have a slight chance but there is too much for us to do.
"But we still have our pride and will keep trying to do as well as we can."
Wenger felt United's third goal proved to be decisive but refused to blame goalkeeper Manuel Almunia for his error in the build-up to it.
"I don't want to blame the goalkeeper for the third goal," he added. "We were poor overall defensively. The first, second and third goals were bad ones to give away and not the kind of thing we did last season.
"Mentally, we never recovered from the third one.
"You could see the confidence of the players start to fade and in the end Manchester United got themselves quite a comfortable victory."
MMIX
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