Skip to main content

Arsenal extended their winning run to 11 games on Thursday evening with a hard-fought win over Sporting CP at the Estádio José Alvaladé, with Danny Welbeck the only scorer in a game largely bereft of individual quality.

After the game, Unai Emery addressed his side's impressive winning streak that stretches back to his side's loss to Chelsea in August, but encouraged fans not to get carried away despite the opportunity to break the Gunners' all-time record for consecutive victories.

The club's record streak stands at 14 matches, but Emery is not looking that far ahead yet.

fbl-eur-c3-sporting-arsenal-5bd245f223006ac05b000001.jpg

"Three matches, that is a lot of matches," he said, via Sky Sports after the game: "We are only thinking of the next match against Crystal Palace. We are also enjoying each moment with our supporters.

"Today we were with them and they were with us, supporters who had come from Arsenal, from London or from here. For us, it's very important that supporters are with us and enjoy it.

"I'm enjoying continuing the work, our process. They have a high demand for us because every match is not easy for us.

fbl-eur-c3-sporting-arsenal-5bd2c7a627750feaf200000d.jpg

"Historically, this has been very difficult for us and I know this. We are thinking about three points at Crystal Palace but we know that it's very difficult to win there. For us, continuing to win is what we want but we know it's not easy and we can lose."

Both sides started the game in Lisbon slowly and lacked quality in possession leading to a fragmented start to the game. Arsenal's nervousness on the ball in the opening stages of games has been a feature of their play all season, and was again present in Portugal on Thursday.

After the game Emery admitted tentative starts are a weakness for his side and that he is trying to find a solution to this.

He added: "Each match is a very big opportunity to improve things and one thing is this, we spoke in the dressing room before the start of the match today about our objectives. And one objective is this. But the most important thing is that when we were in the dressing room at half-time we spoke.

"But we need to continue finding the solution for us to be better in the first halves."