Arteta on hitting form at a crucial time

For the first time in the club’s history, we have started a calendar year with five straight league wins.

2024 got under way with a 5-0 win over Crystal Palace, and we followed that up by beating Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the City Ground. Then we beat Liverpool 3-1 at Emirates Stadium before our back-to-back huge wins on the road at West Ham (6-0) and Burnley (5-0).

It means we have added 15 points since the turn of the year, and improved our goal difference by 19 goals in the process.

“We are hitting form and individually you can see the confidence and the decisions that we make are always positive, always forward,” the boss said at the final whistle. “And that's really pleasing to see, and the team continues to have a desire to score and as well not to concede. There was an action in the 98th minute, I think, everybody tracking back 60 metres. When a team is able to do that, we are alive.”

It's also the first time in the club’s history that we have scored at least five times in consecutive away league games.

“We’ve never done it in our history, and it tells you the difficulty. I think it was the first time as well that we won five games in a row for the second part of the season. So, yeah, let's keep building the momentum.

“It's a really tough place to come and win and especially to win the way and form that we’ve done it today. It shows again how much we want it. You see the desire, you see the aggression, the commitment of the players in every action and I think we deserved to win the game.”

No sooner had the final whistle sounded though, than the boss was looking ahead to Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg clash with Porto.

“Yeah, as soon as I go on the bus, I will review the game and then it's Porto and that's going to be a really tough game. It's a really experienced team in the competition. They create a special atmosphere, we really have to feel ready to be ourselves there.”