Arsenal manager Unai Emery has revealed that as soon as he took over at the Emirates his first demand to his players was that they improved their competitiveness, both individually and collectively as a team.
Emery had a tough start to life in the Premier League losing his opening two games against Man City and Chelsea.
However, the Gunners have since gone on a superb 11 game winning run in all competitions and sit in fourth place in the table after nine games.
“I think the first thing we spoke about when I arrived here was to improve our competitiveness, both individually and collectively as a team,” he told arsenal.com.
“We are doing that. Step by step, I think the team is more competitive and we are not giving the opposition a lot of chances to score easy goals.
“At the moment, we are conceding a lot more than we want to but, in the last matches, we are learning to control games better, little by little. Also, we are not losing.
“The most important thing is that these players and this team, like over the last few years, have this combination of quality and competitiveness. Then we can finish with a lot of players in the opposition box.
“This is the balance between being more competitive and not losing our identity and style. We also need to keep that identity in this team.”
Arsenal will be aiming to make it 12 wins in row when they travel to Selhurst Park to face Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace on Sunday.