Oleksandr Zinchenko insists there would be “no point” continuing the season if he did not retain belief that Arsenal can win the Premier League title.

The Gunners ended a four-match winless run with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Chelsea on Tuesday night to breathe fresh life into their title bid.

Captain Martin Odegaard struck twice before Gabriel Jesus wrapped up the points in the first half, with a first league goal for Noni Madueke providing scant consolation for the Blues.

Despite the win, Manchester City remain firm favourites to claim a fifth crown in six years.

Zinchenko won four league titles at City before joining Arsenal last summer and on arriving at the Emirates Stadium declared Mikel Arteta’s side should be challenging for the trophy rather than aiming for Champions League qualification.

Now the Ukraine full-back maintains that stance heading into the final few weeks of the campaign.

“If you don’t believe, there is no point playing,” he said.

“So of course I do. When I had just arrived I said the quality everyone has here is incredible, the energy as well.

“I said everything is possible in this life if we’re going to work so hard. And that’s what we’re trying to do.

“It was an important three points for us obviously. In terms of our reaction, we bounced back quite good after the last couple of games where we dropped a lot of points.

“The win is so important for us to be back in a routine, for the mood in the dressing room and in terms also for our league position. So, let’s keep going.

“Unfortunately it is not in our hands, but you never know what can happen in this league. From us, we need to be focused on our performances. That’s it.

“We need to keep fighting, because we worked so hard during this season.”

Zinchenko was caught out for Chelsea’s goal on Tuesday night, with Arsenal’s defence once again unable to shut out the opposition.

Arteta’s side have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine league outings and Zinchenko admits that is not good enough.

“The manager has already said to us a couple of things we’ve done badly, what we’ve done good,” he added.

“Of course it’s not acceptable at this level to concede so many goals and we need to improve on that.

“But we’re human beings, we’re still learning and we’re such a young team as well, so I hope for the future we’re going to do much better.”

Defeat for Chelsea means they have now lost all six games under interim boss Frank Lampard and languish in the bottom-half of the table.

“We’re hurt and angry, every negative emotion you could think of,” left-back Ben Chilwell told the club’s official website.

“It was very poor. We knew that if we came here and played like that we would have to expect to concede three goals.

“We’re probably quite a nice team to play against, which has been the story of the whole season to be honest.

“It seems to be every team that plays against us has a good game. That’s not a coincidence. A lot of the performances recently have been below the standard we set. The first half was another example of that. We have to look at ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal have condemned the shining of a laser into the face of Chelsea forward Mykhailo Mudryk as a fan was arrested over the incident.

Television cameras picked up a light being beamed in the direction of the Ukraine international, who had been jeered after coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.

Mudryk had been close to joining the Gunners in January before instead signing for their London rivals and was targeted with the laser during game.

An Arsenal statement on Wednesday morning read: “An arrest has been made following the use of a laser during last night’s match.

“This behaviour is dangerous and totally unacceptable, and we will fully support the police with their enquiries. We will obviously take the strongest possible action.”

The PA news agency understands the Football Association will be investigating the matter and that the Metropolitan Police made a further three arrests at the game for ticket touting.

Frank Lampard insists he still loves being at Chelsea and is relishing the challenge of turning the club’s fortunes around.

Lampard has lost all five of his games in charge since returning to the club earlier this month for a second spell as manager, this time as caretaker, after Graham Potter was sacked.

Chelsea were booed off at half-time during last week’s 2-0 home defeat to Brentford, which extended their winless run in all competitions to eight matches, and sit six points adrift of the Premier League’s top 10.

They play at title-chasing London rivals Arsenal on Tuesday and 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.

Pep Guardiola has warned the Premier League title race is not over and has reminded his Manchester City players what happened last time they beat Arsenal.

City overpowered the leaders 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday to put themselves firmly in the driving seat as they chase a fifth league crown in six years.

The treble-chasing champions are now just two points behind the Gunners with two games in hand and can move top with victory at Fulham on Sunday.

Yet Guardiola remembers well how his side were held to a 1-1 draw by struggling Nottingham Forest just days after winning at the Emirates Stadium in February and does not want a repeat.

The City manager said: “People start to say they have the feeling it’s over, but it’s not over. It will be over when it’s over, and it’s not over.

“We have seven games and in every single game we’ll play for special things for our opponents and ourselves. We have to play our game.

“At the Emirates we won, everyone was happy and saying we had caught Arsenal, but we went to Nottingham Forest and we drew. We played a fantastic game but it was a draw.

“Now we’ve won and we go to Fulham, a special stadium with an incredibly organised team. If we do our job we’ll be closer but nothing is for granted.

“I know it is not 20 games left, but seven games are seven games. It is still a lot of games.”

Arsenal’s challenge has faltered during a miserable April, with their midweek loss at City coming after three successive draws.

Guardiola, however, feels City’s advantage is a slender one and expects Mikel Arteta’s side to bounce back.

He said: “I know Mikel perfectly and the players know that they will not give up.

“If we were 10 points in front I’d say it was almost over but the reality today is we’re two points behind. If the championship finished today they are champions.

“Always I say what happened to them in the last games – three draws, one defeat – can happen to us.

“Impossible? No, it can be possible. You can lose games and drop points in one week.

“We have to be aware of that. If we are it will be easier for us not to drop points.”

After seven successive Premier League wins City – who are also bidding to win the Champions League and FA Cup – appear to be timing their charge perfectly.

“We have good momentum,” Guardiola said. “The feeling is good but we have to prove it again.

“If we don’t get a result at Fulham we will be in the same position as before Arsenal. We have to try to avoid that as much as possible.”

Defender Nathan Ake will miss the game at Craven Cottage as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury but his lay-off should not be a long one.

Guardiola said: “He’s much better, he seems good. The symptoms are good. Still he is not training with the team but I think he won’t be (much) longer.”