{"id":3161,"date":"2014-03-31T02:47:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T02:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2014-03-31T02:47:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T02:47:51","slug":"martinez-aims-champions-league-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/martinez-aims-champions-league-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez Aims Champions League Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<section>Everton remain right in the top-four hunt after a 3-1 win at rock-bottom Fulham cut the gap to fourth-placed Arsenal to just four points.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth-placed Toffees also have a game in hand and host the Gunners this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Boss Martinez said: &#8220;Every game in this division is going to be down to small margins and it will go to the last game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mathematically, you have still got seven teams fighting for the four positions, so I do think it will go down to the end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section>David Stockdale&#8217;s own goal and strikes from subsstitutes Steven Naismith and Kevin Mirallas earned Everton a fifth straight league win to maintain their European charge.<\/p>\n<p>And Martinez is eyeing another thrilling finish after overseeing two great escapes and an FA Cup win in his last three seasons at Wigan.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter if you are fighting to avoid relegation, win a title or finish in the top four.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You need to gain momentum and find a real focus in the squad. Football miracles happen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow it is fair to say, with the points we have, that we have a realistic chance to fight for that aim. I won&#8217;t say if we will get there or not. The challenge against Arsenal on Sunday is phenomenal\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everton remain right in the top-four hunt after a 3-1 win at rock-bottom Fulham cut the gap to fourth-placed Arsenal to just four points. The fifth-placed Toffees also have a game in hand and host the Gunners this Sunday. Boss Martinez said: &#8220;Every game in this division is going to be down to small margins [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3164,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions\/3164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}