Quotes

'We have to handle the chaos'

Arsenal's last two games have featured 10 goals, missed and scored penalties, comebacks, lost leads, no little drama, but ultimately six points against two top-six sides.

Those two frantic, incident packed games were in marked contrast to our previous few five matches, if which we netted just twice.

And there's no doubt that even in victory against Chelsea and United, the team showed less control generally than during our recent wins over Aston Villa, Leicester and Wolves.

Mikel Arteta described the United game last Saturday as 'rollercoaster' and speaking to the media ahead of our trip to the London Stadium, he said he is bracing himself for more of the same during the run in.

"Hopefully not, but the last games of the season tend to go a little bit like that, he said.

"Due to the fatigue of the players, the stress of different elements, it's possible. So we have to be able to handle that chaos as well if it happens."

And when the games do get chaotic, Arteta says that the team's preparation becomes vital.

"It's something that is part of our training, part of the plan that we have in every game – how we control a situation, how we take a situation into our favour.

"But in football a lot of things are unpredictable and we need to know how to react to them."

Explaining why the last two games might have been more open than previous fixtures, the boss said that the opposition need to be taken into account as well. With different sides playing to different objectives at this time of the season, games become more unpredictable.

"They are all different games," he added. "Different approaches and we have changed our approach in those two matches as well because we expected Chelsea’s game to be completely different to United’s which was the case and West Ham will be different.

"Every game will require specific and different things to others without losing who we are."