QPR manager Mark Hughes says Arsenal are currently as good as any team in the country – but still believes his side can beat them.
Struggling Rangers are in the bottom three and have won only two league games since the Welshman took over in January.
Arsenal on the other hand have been in brilliant form and are likely to punish the kind of sloppy defending Hughes’ team were guilty of in the 3-1 defeat at Sunderland last weekend.
“They’re winning games and their confidence is growing as a consequence of that,” said Hughes.
“The key to that is that Arsenal have got a lot of width and pace to their play at the moment. I think maybe when they were struggling earlier in the season the threat from wide areas wasn’t as forthcoming as it is at the moment.
“They’ve got key players that are playing at the top of their ability. It’s a big, big test for us going up against an Arsenal team [which], on current form, is as good as it gets.
“At the moment – unfortunately, from our point of view – they’re playing exceptionally well. Ideally we’d have preferred to go up against them when maybe they were struggling to find the kind of form they’re in at the moment.
“But we fancy our chances at Loftus Road. We were exceptional [against Liverpool] last time out and no-one’s come there and really turned us over, so I don’t anticipate that’s going to happen this weekend.
“I fully anticipate, given that it’s at Loftus Road, that we’ll give a better account of ourselves than we were able to last weekend.”
Arsenal’s visit is part of a daunting run-in to the season for QPR, who must also face Tottenham, Chelsea and both Manchester sides.
But their recent 3-2 victory over Liverpool has given Hughes cause for optimism.
“If we can play as we did against Liverpool against the top sides we’re coming up against then that will go a long way to determining whether we stay in the league,” he added.
Click here for the QPR v Arsenal quiz
Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
This post was last modified on 30/03/2012