Arsenal must demand three points from fortress Emirates

Preparing for one of the most daunting spells in the entire fixture list, Arsenal host Leicester at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday as the first installment in three games across six days.

Some exceptional form up until this point in which the team has amassed 25 points from a possible 30 – the best run across ten league games in all of Europe – has put Arsenal in a strong position to maintain their current stranglehold on the top four positions.

With Leicester down in 12th in the Premier League table – having been above the Gunners when the sides met earlier in the season – this is a fixture Mikel Arteta’s side have to win.

If they are to seal a long-awaited return to the Champions League then victory against the sides in the bottom half of the table is the only acceptable outcome. West Ham, Tottenham and Chelsea are still to come away from home, with Liverpool and Manchester United on home soil before the end of the season.

Arsenal must demand three points from fortress Emirates not only when they face Leicester on Sunday, but for every Premier League fixture

As far as demands go, facing any team at the Emirates has to be viewed as three points and three points only. With perhaps the exception of the top two in the division, anything other than a win has to be seen as, at best, a disappointment.

Only Manchester City and Liverpool boast superior home records in the Premier League this season than Arsenal. If the Gunners beat Leicester on Sunday their home record will be only two points worse off than City’s haul of 34. The Emirates isn’t anything like it used to be.

One needn’t cast the mind back too far to evoke memories of some dark times in north London. Winning only eight of their 19 home fixtures last season saw the Gunners collect 28 from the 57 available. With six matches left to play at the Emirates this season, Arsenal have already accumulated 29, conceded fewer than half the amount of goals, and are only two shy of matching the amount scored last season.

"“If you had asked me what I wanted to do here, I would have said that I would like to make the Emirates the toughest stadium to play at in England,” Arteta told Sky Sports.“If we can do that, it’s going to be a big, big win.”"

The standard has now been set. What Arteta wanted to achieve at home this season, with the exception of the runaway pairing, has been near enough achieved. The atmosphere around the ground is unlike any heard for years on end, and it transmits onto the pitch. For the first time in a painfully long period there is a belief that Arsenal can beat any side at home.

Leicester will be worried. They should be. Their form has been poor this season, but even if they came into this game in finer fettle the mere prospect of facing the third best team in the country on their patch should instill the fear Arteta wanted.

Such has been the transformation at home that now it’s three points or bust. With the next being one of the supposedly ‘easier’ fixtures on paper, in the 13 left to play this season, this has never rang truer.