Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre says the club are still a legitimate chance of taking the Premier League title this season.
The former Manchester United man believes the young players still have time to learn and catch up and has cited consistency as a key to success.
"The season is long. It is difficult if you judge the team on Wednesday night, because you cannot expect to perform like that and win anything," he said.
"But the squad is big and there are going to be different games, there are going to be points to catch - on the road to Middlesbrough first of all.
"It is going to be tough, but we have got time to grow up and we made it difficult for ourselves. However, we are still in the race.
"We proved against Manchester United and Chelsea that the quality is there, so we just have to get the consistency."