Mikel Arteta Makes One Demand As Arsenal Close in on 123-Year Record
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has warned his side against complacency as they seek to become the first Gunners group to win their first eight games of the season since 1903.
Since kicking off the campaign with an emphatic 3–0 win over Manchester City in the Community Shield, Arsenal have not looked back. They are one of just two sides to go four-for-four in the Premier League so far this year, while Napoli and Ipswich Town have both fallen in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, respectively.
Victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday would see Arsenal match a record set all the way back in 1903, but Arteta insisted his players cannot get distracted by the chance to make club history.
“We’ve got a really tough opponent tomorrow so we’re going to have to earn the right to win the game,” he warned. “But certainly that will be the mindset of the players and the team.”
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Asked whether he was surprised to start the season with seven consecutive victories, Arteta insisted the attitude from his players during the summer left him in no doubt that they could carry their dominance over into the current campaign.
“Well, we know how complicated it is to win a football match at this level,” he confessed. “So to win seven, it tells the story.
“After the World Cup, especially, there were a lot of unknowns about how the players and the team were going to react. We didn’t have any time with them to work together. But I said from day one, I think the attitude and what I was seeing, I was really impressed with.
“Then you have to put it down to performances. We had a bit of luck as well, for sure, to win four matches. And we are here. And then we want to make another one for sure tomorrow.”
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Arsenal’s Best-Ever Starts to a Season
Season | Consecutive Wins |
|---|---|
1903–04 | 8 |
2026–27 | 7* |
2004–05 | 7 |
1947–48 | 6 |
1930–31 | 5 |
2022–23 | 5 |
Arsenal’s longest winning streak to start a season came all the way back in 1903–04, but in truth, this season’s run has actually ecplised that in terms of difficulty.
Back in 1903, the team then known as Woolwich Arsenal were competing in the Second Division. Their eight-game winning streak included 8–0 victories over a Leicester Fosse outfit that finished bottom of the league and a Burton Albion side that ended the year just two points clear of the drop zone.
That being said, there was still a 4–0 win over Manchester United, who finished the Second Division season in third, one point behind Arsenal, whose tallies of 91 goals scored and 22 conceded were both league-highs.
The Invincibles of 2004–05 came closest to matching the eight-game run, kicking off their famous campaign with seven straight wins—a return Arteta’s current crop have already matched. The Gunners boss was in no mood to entertain the idea of another unbeaten season this time around.
“We just have enough on the plate today to prepare the game against a really good Brighton tomorrow,” he stressed. “And we know how tough that’s going to be and then the right to win it, that’s it.”
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