• Captain wants team-mates to build on victory over Everton
• Travel to third-place Arsenal on Wednesday

Steven Gerrard has warned his Liverpool team-mates they cannot afford any more mistakes if they are to secure Champions League football next season.

After seven defeats – five more than in the whole of the previous Premier League campaign – the Merseyside club's hopes of a top-four place appeared to be slipping away even seven weeks ago.

However, since losing at Portsmouth on 19 December, Liverpool have put together a seven-match run of five wins and two draws to move back up to fourth. On Wednesday they go to Arsenal, where they have not won in the league for a decade. Victory would put Liverpool two points behind the third-placed Gunners with a trip to Manchester City next.

But having come unstuck at Tottenham, Sunderland, Fulham and Fratton Park this season, Gerrard has stressed the importance of his side building on last weekend's victory over Everton in the 213th Merseyside derby.

"Everybody is still on a high and now we have got to take that high into the next game," he told the Liverpool Echo. "It's a tough one, Arsenal away always is, but we have used beating Everton as a platform in the past and we've got to do it again. We want to extend our run and go on to better things as we can't afford any slip-ups because there is pressure from Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa."

Gerrard added: "We showed fantastic togetherness [against Everton], we fought for each other and that's why I am really proud of this team. It's performances like this that will get you in there [the top four]. There are a couple of very tough games coming up but if we can show what we have done in the last seven games, I don't see why we can't maintain it."

Liverpool have kept six clean sheets on their current run but go to the Emirates without the in-form Sotirios Kyrgiakos as he begin