MIRACLES DO HAPPEN

Wenger: We’ll get our job done... and strange things can take place on last day

ARSENE WENGER is hoping for a last-day miracle as he looks to maintain his impressive record in qualification for the Champions League.

Arsenal have played in European football’s premier club competition in every season in which Wenger has been in full charge at Arsenal.

But the club’s hopes of another season taking on Europe’s elite rest on Middlesbrough surviving at Liverpool or an extraordinary and emphatic win by Watford against Manchester City.

It is clear that Wenger is depending more on a heroic display from the already-relegated men from Teeside who go to Anfield. Liverpool need to win and that mission is accomplished.

Arsenal cannot catch them no matter what the result is against Everton at the Emirates.

Manchester City? They have a fivegoal and three-point advantage over Arsenal going into their match at Vicarage Road – against a team whose manager Walter Mazzari knows he will be at Heathrow tomorrow morning with a P45 nestling in his pocket.

Motivation will be hard never mind a win. But Wenger has not given up hope and he points to last-day dramas from which Arsenal have benefited. “Strange things can happen on that day,” said Wenger. The most memorable came back in 2006 when it appeared Tottenham had ousted Arsenal from the final Champions League spot.

Enter dodgy lasagne and a semi-fit Spurs – with more than half the team complaining of stomach cramps – lost 2-1 at West Ham and saw their hopes of finishing fourth go down the pan.

Wenger remembered it well. “We had to prepare for the Champions League final so we were focused on that as well.

“Now we have the FA Cup final after the Everton game. Back in 2006, you are playing Barcelona in the final and you still thought you had a chance to win the competition and be in the Champions League again.

“This time we are less likely to be in it but we can still manage it.

“But only by focusing on what we think is important, which is to win the game against Everton.”

So it is down to Boro, and Wenger believes the Teessiders will travel to Anfield with hope.

“It is unpredictable,” said Wenger. “Liverpool will certainly be up for it. Middlesbrough will be up for it.

“Liverpool are the favourites, yes. But we drew 0-0 at home to Middlesbrough this season and it was not easy against them. But let us do our job. If it is not enough, it is not enough. We want to play in the best competition and that is why we want to play in the Champions League.

“We have the possibility to do it and if it is a small one, we have to be professional and do it to the end.”

He is reliant on Middlesbrough and, to a certain extent on Watford, but Wenger is no stranger to dramatic last-day scenarios.

In 2013, Arsenal reached the Champions League with a 1-0 win at Newcastle with a goal from Laurent Koscielny.

The relief and joy was palpable and his players were criticised for their wild celebrations. Observers did not regard fourth place as a trophy.

And in 2012, Manchester City beat Queens Park Rangers in the last minute with a goal from Sergio Aguero to win the title.

“So it can happen,” said Wenger.