Coach Arteta: 'May series will decide the championship'

The 4-1 victory over Leeds on April 1 helped Arsenal reach 100 victories in all competitions and win seven consecutive matches in the Premier League for the first time under Arteta. The "Gunners" at the same time re-established an 8-point gap over second in the Man City table, even though they are playing more than one game.

Arteta admits he doesn't care about statistics, and is hesitant when asked about the chance to win, because he thinks the series in May is decisive. "Today was just a normal game," he said. "The finals are only in May. We didn't have any finals until then."

Yesterday, on the bus to the Emirates Stadium, Arteta showed the players a few minutes of the Man City vs Liverpool match at the Etihad, which took place about two and a half hours before the Arsenal - Leeds match. But after that, all the members focused on preparing for the "Gunners" match.

"We can't control what City do. We need to focus on what we can control, which is to play the best we can to keep winning," said Arteta.

Yesterday, Arsenal started struggling, and got ahead thanks to a flash of Gabriel Jesus. In the 35th minute, the Brazilian striker made two fake kicks and fell when defender Luke Ayling kicked him in the knee, bringing the penalty. It was Jesus who took responsibility with the kick in the middle, breaking the deadlock.

The opening goal helped Arsenal take the pressure off and scored three more goals in the second half thanks to Ben White, Jesus and Granit Xhaka. On the opposite side, Leeds only scored one goal with a close-in kick that smashed Oleksandr Zinchenko's foot to change the direction of Rasmus Kristensen. The 4-1 victory helped the "Gunners" re-establish an eight-point gap with Man City, although they still played more than one match.

Arteta said he had a hard time deciding on the starting line-up, when many players were sick and were not in the best shape after two weeks of focusing on the team. William Saliba was injured, Thomas Partey soon left the Ghana team and Bukayo Saka was a substitute. Therefore, Arteta was satisfied when his students overcame difficulties, controlled the game and won an important victory.

"Enjoy this moment, we have nine games left and want to win together," Arteta thanked the fans for their support. "I get goose bumps when we sing together before the game. Football is passion, emotion and something we can convey. Fans transmit energy, faith, love to the players. and unconditional support".

He then congratulated Gabriel Jesus on ending a run of 11 games without a game after being out for the past four months with a knee injury, and praised Leandro Trossard's ability to perform well in any position up front. Arteta also revealed that White has had some problems in the past few days, but tries to play in the context of Tomiyasu Takehiro's surgery and the rest of the season.

In the next round on April 9, Arteta's teachers and students will face a much more difficult challenge when marching to Liverpool's Anfield stadium.