Mikel Arteta has a genius secret to outrun pressure at Arsenal

Mikel Arteta's secret recipe to not think about the quadruple challenge that everyone throws at him all the time is easy - he simply avoids the conversation at all costs and puts his head down to work.

Arteta's side has seen a blip in some games, but are still alive in all competitions this season. Technically, a historic quadruple is very much on the cards for this team, and only time will tell how many trophies they are able to win when the season ends.

They drew their first leg of the round of 16 clash against Bayer Leverkusen, but playing the second leg at home gives them an advantage going into next week.

FA Cup draws have also been kind to them, pitting their rivals against each other while getting a slightly more favourable draw for themselves. The Premier League title race is firmly in their hands as well.

So, it does not hurt to ask the question of how he is able to not think about it after every couple of minutes. Most people would.

Mikel Arteta has a genius secret to outrun pressure at Arsenal

Obviously, if he talks about winning it, it puts a lot of pressure on his players and himself to perform as well as possible, and even though they want to do that either way, there is that layer of expectations that comes with it.

His secret behind it is to just focus on work at all times.

He said: "I mean, if you’re in our seat from competition to competition, we’re going to play in seven days in three different competitions.

"So that drags you from one to another, the urgency to get prepared, to translate the messages that you want, to make the right decisions and to make sure that we arrive into any game in the best possible way, it’s enough, and the rest is a consequence of that process and how well we do it, which is still very far."

It is easy for him to block out all the external noise about everything else, too. If you manage a top side in the Premier League that is playing in four competitions, and has a game after every three days, you probably would not even have time to think about these sorts of things.

That is what makes this so interesting. Arsenal get ridiculed every other week for one reason or the other. Whether it is a draw, or a set-piece goal, Arsenal attract criticism solely because they are the best team in England.

And yet, somehow, they are still alive in all competitions, and these sorts of questions are still being asked in March.

That is a testament to how well everyone has performed and how well Arteta has done to block out the noise, not just for his sake, but also the team's.