ROBBIE Savage reckons Blackburn Rovers have the quality to compete with the likes of Arsenal for a top four spot after Mark Hughes succeeded in hanging onto all of his star players this summer.

Confidence in the Rovers camp is sky high following the club's best start to a Premiership campaign for a decade, and Sunday's 1-0 victory over Manchester City saw them extend their unbeaten run to an impressive 14 matches, a run stretching back to April 15, when they were unlucky to lose to Chelsea in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Benni McCarthy was the hero against City, grabbing his first Premiership goal of the season to fire Rovers up to seventh position in the table, just two points behind early pacesetters Liverpool.

Now Savage believes Rovers deserve to be considered as possible dark horses for a Champions League place, along with the likes of Everton and Tottenham, after Hughes managed to keep hold of key men like McCarthy and Morten Gamst Pedersen during the transfer window.

"It was important to keep the likes of Benni, David Bentley, Morten and Ryan this summer," said Savage.

"But why would you want to leave Blackburn anyway?

"Of course, if the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool come in for you, sometimes you can't say no to a huge club like that.

"But why else would you want to leave Blackburn to go to one of the other 17 clubs in this league?

"Lucas Neill left to go to West Ham last season, and Craig Bellamy went to Liverpool. But Liverpool's a big club.

"We've got a great squad now, a great strike force, and great strength in depth in midfield.

"And for me, we've got probably the best defensive partnership in Ryan Nelsen and Chris Samba, and maybe the best keeper in the league as well.

"So we are looking strong. If we can continue the way we've started, we'll be there or FROM BACK PAGE thereabouts, so it's an exciting time to be a Blackburn player."

Rovers have taken eight points from their opening four games in the Premiership, and encouraging draws against Arsenal and Everton, followed by Sunday's hard-earned victory over Sven Goran Eriksson's new-look City, have convinced Savage that he and his team-mates can be a force to be reckoned with over the next nine months.

The Welshman points to the Arsenal match in particular, when Rovers came back from a goal down to take a point off the Gunners, as the moment everyone in the dressing room began to believe they could challenge the big boys, and the team has grown in confidence ever since.

"Anyone who has watched us this season can see how well we've played," said Savage.

"We went to Everton a couple of weeks ago and played them off the park in the first half.

"We also created a lot more than Manchester City on Sunday, and everyone has been saying how good they are.

"But the real turning point was against Arsenal, when we went in 1-0 down at half-time. However, we knew when we got into the dressing-room that we could win the game. It was an amazing feeling.

"Although we didn't beat them, we knew that if we kept plugging away we could have beaten them."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was less than complimentary about Rovers' steely approach during that feisty 1-1 draw, accusing Savage and company of being violent' and over physical', a view also shared by Gunners striker Robin Van Persie, who was similarly critical in a recent interview with the Sunday Times.

However, Savage insists the Arsenal duo should focus on what is happening at their own club, rather than take cheap shots at possible rivals.

"People like Arsene Wenger should concentrate on his own team, instead of going on about us all the time," added Savage.

"Wenger is a great manager and van Persie is a great player, but they give as good as they get.

"Van Persie did a piece in the paper slaughtering us, which is wrong.

"It's a man's game, it's physical. You're going to get stuck in and make tackles. And they do that, so it's very hypocritical of them."