Arsenal continued their incredible start to 2024 with a 6-0 away victory at Sheffield United on Monday night, their seventh Premier League win on the bounce.
The game was over inside 15 minutes after early goals from Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli, as well as an own goal from Jayden Bogle, put the Gunners 3-0 up.
Mikel Arteta's men were in cruise control for the rest of the night, scoring three more - through Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and Ben White - and registering 81 per cent possession.
Arteta fielded the same starting line-up that had beaten Newcastle 4-1 at the Emirates a week earlier, with Jorginho as the deepest midfielder, Rice pushing higher and Havertz operating as the centre forward.
And right now that looks like Arsenal’s best set-up.
Despite looking overly pragmatic on paper, the solidity of the four centre-backs in defence, with Jorginho in front and Rice playing higher to support the press has given Arsenal such as stable platform.
Havertz, meanwhile, looks to have found his feet up top, topping off another impressive display with a confident finish.
This set-up looks to be the go-to at the moment and with several big games coming up against the likes of Porto and Manchester City, Arteta seems to have found his best side at the perfect time.
Another convincing win was made even more enjoyable by a number of players returning from injury as Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey all took to the field after long injury lay-offs.
That will add further depth to the Arsenal bench and all of those players will play an important role between now and the end of the season.
The disheartening thing for Arsenal is that despite this seven-game winning streak, during which they’ve scored 31 goals and conceded just three, they are no closer to Liverpool or Manchester City at the top of the table.
It’s a title race with room for minimal slip-ups, but the current top two face off at Anfield at the weekend and Arsenal need to keep up this winning run to pounce.
The Gunners could take over at the summit temporarily on Saturday evening, as they host 15th-placed Brentford at the Emirates in the 5.30pm kick-off.
Then it will be all eyes on the return meeting with Porto next Tuesday as they bid for a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
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