Mikel Arteta played down the significance of Arsenal\u2019s nine-point advantage at the top of the Premier League, insisting the focus remains on the next challenge rather than the margin. \u201cNothing\u201d is how he described the advantage, even as the squad drew renewed attention after a 3\u20130 win over Sunderland.<\/p>\n
The north London side have not been crowned champions since their unbeaten 2003\u201304 season. Since then they have finished runners-up five times, including in the last three seasons. That 2003\u201304 team held a nine-point lead at one stage that eventually grew to 11 by season\u2019s end; by comparison, Arsenal\u2019s current 2025\u201326 figures through 25 games read: Played 25, Won 17, Drawn 5, Lost 3, Goal Difference +32, Points 56. The 2003\u201304 totals were Played 25, Won 18, Drawn 7, Lost 0, Goal Difference +33, Points 61.<\/p>\n
Recent results have been mixed. Successive goalless draws with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were followed by a shock defeat against Manchester United at Emirates Stadium on Jan. 25. Between those results Arsenal progressed in the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Champions League, and Saturday\u2019s victory over Sunderland reinforced their standing.<\/p>\n
There was social-media scepticism after dropped points. \u201cSame old Arsenal\u201d the cries of opposition fans gloating at the prospect of the Gunners throwing away another lead, giddy that Mikel Arteta could continue leading the way in terms of meme generation (even if Liam Rosenior is trying his best to take away that particular crown).<\/p>\n
Leeds United were thumped 4\u20130 at Elland Road in their most recent outing, and Sunderland offered limited resistance at the Emirates. Substitute Viktor Gy\u00f6keres scored a brace and has now netted the joint-highest goals this calendar year (six). Arsenal also benefited from the return of Kai Havertz in a deeper midfield role and started Gabriel Jesus up front.<\/p>\n
Arteta reflected on the win: \u201cI\u2019m very, very happy with the win, with big parts of the performance,\u201d and added, \u201c…because it\u2019s a really tough opponent. They\u2019re really good at what they do, really good at breaking play, playing to the last man, breaking your press, holding the ball and very difficult to get sequences with threat and momentum consecutively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on the lead, Arteta said: \u201cWe still have to win so many games to achieve what we want, so let\u2019s not focus on that. We\u2019ve done our job now, we\u2019ve had what we have to do, assess that, try to improve it and get ready for Brentford.\u201d City and Aston Villa have dropped points recently, but no sustained challenge has emerged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta downplays Arsenal’s nine-point lead while the side recalls the 2003-04 ‘Invincibles’ season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1305],"class_list":["post-6637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-bench-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}