Rafa van der Vaart has warned Arsenal not to get carried away with their win over Chelsea.
The Gunners stunned the Blues with a 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to move within three points of their London rivals in the Premier League. The victory was their eighth in nine matches and demonstrates that Arsene Wenger’s side have gone some way to addressing their dismal start to the campaign that saw them lose four of their opening seven league games.
Their only defeat since that run began in September was at White Hart Lane — a fact that van der Vaart was all too keen to point out to his arch rivals after he helped Tottenham extend their own unbeaten run to seven matches with a 3-1 win over QPR.
The Dutchman — who has now scored in a club record-equalling five successive Premier League games — thinks that despite Arsenal’s recent good form, Spurs who are the kings of north London. He said: “We are better than Arsenal.
“In our last seven games we have won six and drawn once. It’s a long season, but I think we have a bigger and better squad.”
Chelsea and Arsenal have dominated the London scene for the last two decades, but under Harry Redknapp Tottenham reached the Champions League quarter-finals last term.
And they look set to challenge for qualification to Europe’s top club competition again this time round after their recent good form. Sunday’s win, which came courtesy of a Van der Vaart goal and a double from Gareth Bale, moved Spurs level on points with the Blues, who are stuck in third after losing their last two games.
Van der Vaart, 28, is so confident about Spurs’ strength in depth that he thinks the club could challenge the likes of Chelsea and even Manchester United for second and third place come the end of the season.
He added: “Are we the best team in London? Maybe, but it’s still early. We’re in a good way. We are much better than we were last season. Man City is the best team in the league and below them you have a lot of good teams and we are one of them.”
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