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Cape Town - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has played down the importance of Champions League qualification, after falling further behind the top four.
The Gunners suffered a 3-1 defeat at West Brom on Saturday to leave them five points below the top four teams in the Premier League standings.
Wenger is believed to be keen to sign a new one-year deal at the club, despite possibly missing out on Champions League football for the first time in 20 years.
"My decision will not necessarily be linked with that because I've done the top four 20 times. It's more, it's not that," said the Arsenal boss, according to ESPN FC. "I take a bigger perspective than that. It's not the last result that will decide what I will do.
"It's not [the end of the world], not any more. That was for a long time the case, but not today. Financially, I mean.
"Of course, on the sporting front it would be a blow, but financially the Champions League does not have the impact any more that it had five or six years ago because of the influx of the television money [to the Premier League]."
Meanwhile West Bromwhich Albion manager Tony Pulis says Arsene Wenger has told him he wants to stay at Arsenal next season.
When asked why he was so certain Wenger would stay, Pulis answered with a wry smile, "because he told me".
