Arsenal captain aiming for the top

Arsenal will not settle for fourth place in the Premier League this campaign, captain Robin van Persie said on Saturday.

The Dutchman has been in superb form this season, netting 19 goals and helping his team win seven of their last eight games.

Speaking ahead of his team's much-anticipated clash with Manchester City on Sunday, van Persie told Arsenal Player: "We should have higher expectations every week, but for now because we have only played 15 games in the league we are not even halfway."

"I don't think it's clever to be excited by fourth, fifth, sixth or whatever. We still have to play many games."

"So many things can happen - you see that Spurs lost three points last week, Chelsea beat Manchester City."

"It is an open league and anything can happen. Lots of stuff will happen that is surprising so we have to make sure that we are on the good side and actually surprise people with our results."

Arsenal's terrible start to the season included an embarrassing 8-2 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in August, but the 28-year-old striker believes they have now firmly returned to form and can be successful.

"Everybody had written us off to come back from something like that and weren't speaking positively about us," he said.

"To bounce back from a period like that you can say that everybody earns some credit because we had to dig deep - trust me."

"It's going to be a big test but we have played against world-class sides before - nobody really expected us to beat Chelsea 5-3 away, but we did it."

"I don't see why we can't surprise again. We're having a good run. Everybody is confident and believes in themselves. The spirit is as high as it can get."

City will be looking to bounce back from last week's defeat to Chelsea and cement their place at the top of the league, with van Persie expecting a reaction from Roberto Mancini's men.

"Normally, good teams bounce back. You never really know," he said.

"I remember playing Manchester United a couple of years ago after the unbeaten season when we lost our first game 2-0 at Old Trafford. The following four or five games we didn't win somehow - it was always a draw and somehow we couldn't win."

"That was our bit of history but you never know how they will pick it up. Hopefully we can get a good result and everybody is looking forward to it, preparing well."

"This is what you want as a player - you want to play in those games where you don't know what's going to happen. They don't know what will happen either, and that's what makes it interesting."

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