Laurent Koscielny praised Arsenal for their “focus” after a third clean sheet in four Premier League matches.
Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in the space of 88 seconds to secure three vital points against Bournemouth on Sunday and Koscielny led by example as a resolute Arsenal defence kept the Cherries at bay.
"We needed to start a good run with this game and we stayed strong at the back, and scored two goals with our first two opportunities"
“It is good, we have three clean sheets in four games and we have to stay focused like this,” Koscielny told Arsenal Player.
“All the team played well and did their job and if you want to win games you need to score too. We kept a clean sheet and we need to be more confident and defend together but we will be happy with this.
“It was important to win because we needed to stay high up the table with Leicester, Tottenham and Manchester City. We didn’t play well during January and we didn’t win a lot of points. We needed to start a good run with this game and we stayed strong at the back, and scored two goals with our first two opportunities.
“We had three games without scoring so it was important for our players.”
Koscielny also paid tribute to his central-defensive partner, Gabriel, for his solid display at the back.
“You know Gabby, he is a very good player,” he said. “He likes his duels and he can play with the ball and passes.
“He played very well but the whole back four played well because we stayed together. Sometimes in your game you have a difficult situation but we stayed focus on our job.”
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