Arsenal defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is confident the Gunners can secure a top four finish in the Premier League this season.
Sokratis, who made the switch to the Premier League with Arsenal in the summer, played the entirety of the Gunners’ hard-fought 2-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday.
The 30-year-old was deployed at the heart of Arsenal’s three-man defence as Unai Emery opted for a tweak in formation during the game against the high-flying hosts at the Vitality Stadium.
Despite opting for a change in approach against the Cherries, Arsenal were able to secure maximum points, courtesy of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s winner, to extend their unbeaten run to 17 games across all competitions.
Sokratis, who played the entirety of the win over Bournemouth, says that he is confident that Arsenal can secure a top four finish at the end of the season.
The Greek defender also added that Arsenal are yet to reach their optimum level of performance, but insisted that they are extensively working towards achieving it.
"We are around 70-80 per cent [of our potential]”, Sokratis told the club’s official website.
"We need to improve sometimes to not lose the ball or when we have the ball to finish the action and score.
"That is the difference, we need to improve and we know this. We work every day and I am happy that I am part of a team that works very good together.
"We have confidence [we can get into the top four] but it is not easy.
“Next week is very important, it is good that we didn't lose points because we go full of confidence and we will see.
"Of course we need to improve, of course we would like to put Arsenal in the top teams in the Premier League – we try every day for this.”
Sokratis has made 11 appearances across all competitions for Arsenal since arriving from Borussia Dortmund in the summer.
