Chelsea with knobs on: Arsenal's Szczesny aims to top Blues' dream season - Mirror.co.uk

Wojciech Szczesny believes his Arsenal side can go one better than Chelsea - by winning the Champions League AND finishing in the top four at home.

Keeper Szczesy's return from injury has coincided with the best week of the Gunners' season - a 5-2 thrashing of Tottenham in the North London derby followed by securing qualification for the knockout phase in Europe's premier competition for the 13th consecutive season.

The European Cup final will be held at Wembley in May for the second time in three years, and the Gunners have slipped quietly into the last 16 while big-spending Chelsea and Manchester City have struggled.

Arsene Wenger's men are not among the Champions League favourites and have struggled to put together a winning run at home.

But Poland international Szczesny claims they have renewed momentum.

"You have ups and downs in every season and we have been through some tough weeks recently," he said.

"We came back stronger than ever against Tottenham and we want to enjoy that moment as long as we can. We've only had two positive results and we want to put together a longer run - then we can start talking about the real Arsenal again.

"But Arsenal have qualified for the last 16 every year for the last few years, so I don't think us reaching the knockout stage should surprise anyone.

"Chelsea and Manchester City not doing well is a massive surprise, but at the moment we are just enjoying that we've got through.

"Of course, we hope to get a good result in Olympiacos [in next month's group-phase finale], but it's not in our hands whether we finish top of our group. We have to rely on someone else, but I'm not sure if it's the most important thing to come top.

"In the last 16, whether you finish first or second, you come up against the best teams in Europe. We came top last year, played AC Milan away and lost 4-0.

"We can take inspiration from what Chelsea did last season.

"They weren't fantastic in the Premier League but they had a fantastic run in Europe. I hope we can do what they did, but also perform a little bit better in the Premier League."