The Gunners recorded seven successive wins in a row before suffering a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Queen Park Rangers last weekend, allowing Spurs to wipe out the three-point deficit.

Arsene Wenger's side, though, have won their past seven at home scoring 24 goals in the process and Van Persie is the league's top scorer with an impressive 26 goals.

And the prolific Dutch striker is confident there is enough quality in the side to go on another winning run and pile the pressure on their North London neighbours, with just six games of the Premier League campaign remaining.

He told Sky Sports 1: "If you offered me fourth spot now, I would say no, quite clearly because we are now in a big battle for third place and I believe that we can actually get it.

"It's just one goal difference with Spurs at the moment, so it's a very nice battle but I am quite confident that we can actually finish in third.

"To become third is like our own little race because we have quite a few little races going on.

"You have a big race to become champion - first and second, then you have three, four and five.

"It's quite interesting and then all the way down (the table) you have battles going on with other teams which is very interesting for everyone to watch because every single game matters."