It’s been a great week for Arsenal but too early to celebrate yet

First impressive away win under Arteta by Konstantin Mitov

Lovely Arsenal people, it’s been a fine week. We produced a solid away performance and got deserved 3 points at a difficult away ground. The first time we beat away a team that’s higher than us in the table for 5 years.

There’s a statistic to improve on. Some players who took a lot of stick put in solid performances. David Luiz looked good in a back 3, and managed his attitude well on a yellow card.

Mustafi was also excellent, and even if I don’t think he or Luiz are good enough for a title winning squad, Shkodran in particular has won me and other Arsenal fans over by taking the criticism on the chin and working hard.

Xhaka shielded the defense well and Ceballos was lively. Again, not world beaters, but when they put in the shift, I will give credit where credit is due. Lacazette came off the bench and produced the finish of a 50m striker.

And that man Bukayo Saka. Arteta was right that he resembles everything Arsenal is about. Young, exciting, full of quality and potential, he kept a level head in his interview and he’s a local lad. Something we’ve missed for years.

We have a crop of local Arsenal players, and with a NLD coming soon I expect to see a squad who understands what it means and will put everything in to end their season, which will be especially sweet with Mourinho at their helm.

But before that we have Leicester, and with our current form and our home record against them I expect us to win. We should be beating teams like Wolves and Leicester. They are not champions league teams and they are being overhyped for performing much better than their standard is.

I don’t want to wander between 1th and 7th place and look at results of teams like Sheffield United, with all respect to them. That said, we shouldn’t go overboard with winning one game. We’ve done it so many times in recent years and it’s not funny.

All the talking should be done on the pitch starting with tonight’s game against Leicester. Our champions league hopes are extremely slim, but we should build on winning ways and add confidence. We need to restore the respect other teams had for us before, and this only happens if you win games.

It’s of course a long process, but we’re well capable of beating Leicester and then if we end Tottenham’s season, there will be something to cheer on! Besides, we’re still in the FA cup and we have to beat City and Chelsea or United. Easy, right? No, but it’s the kind of games I want us to play in and I want to be confident we can win them.

Konstantin