‘We’re getting better and better’

Sunday’s win over Crystal Palace was our sixth straight victory in the Premier League, and the fourth in a row in which we had scored at least three goals.

In fact it’s the first time we’ve managed that since 2004, having beaten Everton 4-0, Bournemouth 3-2, Fulham 3-0 and now Palace 4-1 in our last four league games. We’ve scored 66 league goals so far this season, more than in any of our preceding three seasons – with ten matches still remaining.

There were three different goalscorers again on Sunday, and after the game Mikel Arteta was delighted with our attacking display.

“It was really good,” he said, “I think we are getting better and better. We need to keep investing in those connections, those understandings, those timings.

“We can become quite unpredictable for the opponent to try and defend it. Again, we split the goals, which is really good. Let’s continue to do it.”

Bukayo Saka was at the forefront of much of our attacking play yet again, taking his seasonal tally to 13, and the manager believes there’s more to come from the youngster.

“He’s improving because he’s got the right team-mates that make him better, and that’s really important. It’s true that he affected the game in the right way for us and he’s been really consistent. We need to maintain that.

“He remains humble, he knows that he can still be much better, do things a lot better than he does and that’s a big given because he’s still 21 years old.”