The stakes are high as the team enters the home straight of the season – four games remaining with just two points separating us from fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
After successive wins against Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham, the next hurdle is Leeds United – themselves in a desperate fight for points at the wrong end of the table.
For us, the target is Champions League qualification, after missing out on each of the past five seasons. After hosting Leeds this weekend, the Gunners will take on Tottenham away next Thursday, then travel to Newcastle on Monday week. We’ll conclude the season at home to Everton. But Mikel Arteta is looking no further than Sunday’s huge game, against relegation-threatened Leeds.
“It's a lot to play for and obviously,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference.
“The situation that they are in, they are going to show how much they want to get out of that zone as quickly as possible. For us, this is the defining moment of the season after everything we've done, so we want to capitalise on what we've done in the last nine or 10 months.
“Hopefully, we can play better with the ball than what we did (against West Ham),” he added.
“It is true that as well we did a lot of good things in that game to earn the right to win it. The way we competed it, the way we managed the strength of West Ham and how much we limited them.
“Every game has different demands and against Leeds it will be a completely different game, the way they play, but really competitive as well.”
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