A REALISTIC Gareth Southgate last night admitted that Middlesbrough deserved nothing at the Emirates Stadium before warning his players they might have to end the season with a four-match unbeaten run to stay up.

The 2-0 defeat at Arsenal, courtesy of a goal in each half from Cesc Fabregas, has left Boro three points adrift of safety in the Premier League with just 12 points to play for.

The Gunners deserved to inflict a tenth successive away league defeat on Middlesbrough – equalling a club record that has stood since 1911 – despite a hint of offside about the opening goal.

Southgate, however, has certainly not given up on Middlesbrough’s fight. He has urged the members of his inexperienced squad to pick up eight points from the final four matches – and thwart Manchester United’s Premier League charge for the title in the process.

“We’ve been in the situation for about ten weeks, and we are used to the pressure of it and we know everybody else is looking over their shoulder,”

said Southgate, before Blackburn’s win over Wigan left Hull and Sunderland further in trouble.

“We are probably underdogs for the four matches we’ve got coming up, and we know we are probably going to have to win one away.

“But we are still in there fighting – there’s no way of knowing how many points we might need. “We are going to have to win at least two, and maybe two draws, that might be enough.

“It’s impossible to say. You could drive yourself crazy looking at all the fixtures, I haven’t looked too closely.

“All we can think about is can we get a win against Manchester United next week?

There’ll be some atmosphere because I think our stadium is sold out already. All we have to do is beat the world champions to try and stay in the division.”

After the visit of United, Middlesbrough have a home game with Aston Villa sandwiched inbetween fixtures at Newcastle and West Ham.

But while Arsenal deserve praise for the manner in which they went about moving Southgate’s men aside, the Teessiders struggled to find a breakthrough even when the Gunners relaxed for 20 minutes after half-time.

And when goalkeeper Brad Jones wrongly raced out to meet an Emmanuel Eboue through-ball 23 minutes from time, Fabregas simply rounded the Aussie before rolling into an empty net to end any hopes among the travelling support of a surprise point.

“We kept our discipline well and our shape, and if you get a half-chance you’ve got to take it,” said Southgate.

“We had a decent chance in the second half, and some reasonable breaks in the first,” he added, referring most notably to Jeremie Aliadiere’s miss when he was denied by Manuel Almunia.

“But it was always going to be difficult. There’s 34 points between the two teams, it’s obviously a huge gulf. But I can’t fault the players’ commitment, there was no disgrace in how we performed.

“Now we’ve got an equally difficult game next week, but at least it’s on our patch and with our supporters behind us that will hopefully make a significant difference.”

Southgate was unhappy with referee Chris Foy’s decision to allow Fabregas’ opener, when Nicklas Bendtner clearly stood in an offside position to block Jones’s view.

He was further angered when the official failed to point to the spot when Stewart Downing’s delivery struck Bendtner’s hand in the area.

Southgate, though, chose not to direct his angst at Foy.

He said: “There’s no question it’s offside and, no question, in our opinion, that it’s interfering with play, and it knocked the wind out of our sails.

“It hasn’t gone for us but we’ve got to look at the 90 minutes and we didn’t do enough to get a result from the game.

“It looked like a penalty to me. I’ve not had a chance to see it again, but it looked as if we might have had one. But I’m not sure the referee’s decisions would have changed the result, to be honest.”

Sir Alex Ferguson was in the Emirates Stadium to run the rule over both opponents, ahead of back-to-back Manchester United fixtures against Arsenal and Middlesbrough.

Before the league leaders visit the Riverside Stadium, United face Arsenal at Old Trafford in the semi-final of the Champions League, first leg, on Wednesday night.

“I thought he was coming to watch Middlesbrough,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose side remain six points behind Chelsea in the race to finish third in the Premier League.

“He knows us and I believe that what he will think is that it will be an exciting game between two teams that will try to play and who know each other well. The talent on the pitch always surprises you and I believe both teams will really go for it and it will be an exciting game.”

Wenger will be able to call upon Fabregas for the United game, although he feared the worst after a challenge on the Spaniard from Stewart Downing.

The Frenchman said: “He’s fine. I was worried. He told me it was the knee he had before and you don’t like that. And the ankle, too. But after the game he said the ankle is worse than the knee and so that’s not too bad.

“The referee told me he played the ball, but it didn’t look like it to me. Downing also told me he played the ball but, to me, it didn’t look as if he only played the ball.

“It’s always difficult to see whether it was intentional or not, whether the guy meant it or not.”