Arteta’s impressive Arsenal trait helps keep focus

Arsenal are three points ahead of Tottenham with a game in hand and have just ten matches left to play of the season. There is plenty of reason for optimism.

Momentum is with them, too. It’s now 31 points collected from the last 39 available, the team have kept 13 clean sheets from 28 games and individually there are players performing at the highest level they’ve shown to date.

The old adage of taking one game at a time may be a mundane outlook, but it’s a crucial one, and it’s one that Mikel Arteta is drumming every step of the way.

No flowers for anyone. No time to dwell. No time to revel.

Mikel Arteta is refusing to get carried away at Arsenal and the focus on each game as it comes will be key to securing top four

How the manager is approaching this season and the team’s progress is impressive. It’s helping to maintain focus and will be a key ingredient across the remaining fixtures.

"“[…] we have 10 games to go and what we did yesterday or today now it’s irrelevant,” he said after the crucial win over Aston Villa.“It’s what we’re going to do tomorrow, prepare, how we are going to improve the team and play better to win more games and especially more comfortably, because when you are so dominant like we were today, we have to score the second and third one and we’re not there yet.”"

He is refusing to soak up the plaudits. The demands are to improve in every facet in every single day available.

Arsenal are earning praise from unfamiliar sources in the football world, with Arteta receiving his fair share of acclaim for the impressive turnaround in results and performances that he has overseen across this season. But not for one second is that being allowed to distract from the task at hand.

Repeatedly he states that the Gunners have ‘achieved nothing’. These sentiments are being echoed in the players, who now regularly refer to every single remaining Premier League fixture as a cup final.

Arteta made it clear on the touchline and after the Watford match that he wasn’t happy. Arsenal scored three goals but they conceded two. That’s unacceptable and grounds for improvement, not appraisal. At no point has he been sucked into saying that his side are favourites to finish in the top four, nor are they confident of doing so. Not once have they been in a ‘strong position’.

The mental side of this Champions League chase is just as vital as the quality. The celebrations after matches are acknowledgment of the importance of three points, and as soon as the players step back into the dressing room the focus shifts immediately to what they can fix, how they can train and how they will win the next match.

That side of his management is improving and to see it reflected in the players adds to its value.

One game at a time. No more, no less.