Emmanuel Adebayor admits it would take “a miracle” for Arsenal to win the Premier League title this year but insists they will not finish empty-handed next season.

Arsene Wenger’s side have a mathematical but highly improbable chance of overtaking Manchester United and Chelsea following a 6-2 thrashing of Derby County last night. However, with only two games left, Arsenal face a four-point deficit to both teams and also an inferior goal-difference to United.

Adebayor came off the bench at Pride Park to score a second-half hat-trick, taking his goal-tally for the season to 30. “I am praying for a miracle now, but miracles do happen,” he said. “We have put pressure on the top two and it is not too late for something amazing to happen.

“We have to hope that Chelsea and United make mistakes at the weekend but I can promise we will not make any. We showed with our win we have character because it might have been easy just to look at the table and give up on trying to be champions, but that is not who we are.

“What was also important is that we sent out a message to our rivals that, despite all the disappointments we have had in the past couple of months, we are sticking together and showing that we are getting better and better. This season we may end up with nothing, but it will not look the same this time next year.”