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By Martin Graham | 14th Mar 2023

Arsenal claimed a dominant 3-0 win over Fulham at the weekend to take their winning streak in the Premier League to five games. That win not only extended the Gunners’ lead at the top of the table back to five points but also took Mikel Arteta to a century of wins as Arsenal manager.

The Spaniard achieved that feat in his 168th game in charge, meaning his overall win percentage of 59.5 per cent is the best that any manager in Arsenal history has managed.

However, Arsenal remain in a genuine title race and boast a strong chance of winning the Premier League for the first time in 19 years. The Gunners’ boss is pleased about his milestone but will rather focus on his team’s collective chase at the moment.

Arteta not too bothered about century of wins

Speaking after his side’s win against Fulham, Arteta said: “To come here and perform the way we’ve done against a team like Fulham in this stadium, I think the players deserve a big compliment. With the way we played, the goals that we scored, the clean sheet and the determination and purpose that we showed today to play the way we want to play.

“It’s great (100 wins), we have to continue like that, I’m delighted to do that, unfortunately, it’s not a title, so there’s still a lot to improve!”

Purely looking at this season, Arteta’s win ratio stands at 73 per cent, and the Spaniard made sure to praise his team for their resilience and consistency shown so far this season.

He added: “It is incredible and that means that we have a lot of people doing the right things at the club. In the team a lot of players contributing immensely and especially the support that we have, which in my opinion, has absolutely transformed this team with that energy, so I’m really happy.”

Arsenal will now turn their attention to Europe, where they will take on Sporting on Thursday in their Europa League return leg, having played to a 2-2 draw last week.

The Gunners will fancy their chances of progressing, given that the Emirates Stadium has been something of a fortress this season.

Following that fixture, Arsenal will hope to maintain their momentum in the Premier League as they take on Crystal Palace in their final Premier League game before the international break.

Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer

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