Arsenal manager Unai Emery insists he is not focused on the club’s eight-match winning run and believes he can balance the Premier League and Europa League commitments this season.
Arsenal last achieved such a run under Arsene Wenger in April 2015 and, having lost their first two games, are now within four points of City and Liverpool at the top of the table ahead of their clash with Fulham on Sunday.
“Usually I don’t look behind, every day I’m looking at the next matches — what’s in front,” Emery said. “For me, whether we win or lose, every match is giving me a lot of information about how to improve. Every coach wants to win, but it’s not easy to do that.
“For me the challenge is every day and every match — to look back to the last match is not good for us and not for me. My only focus is on Sunday against Fulham, to get three points to continue going up in the table.”
A 3-0 victory over Qarabag in the Europa League on Thursday night kept the games coming thick and fast. Emery won the Europa League three seasons in a row while in charge of Sevilla and asked about the struggle of playing Thursday and Sunday, he replied: “Yes but the Premier League is very difficult. It’s the most difficult domestic competition in the world. The first six teams are playing each season a lot of matches in the Premier League, the cups and Europe.
“Every teams want to do the best performance in the Premier League because it’s the first competition for us and also in the cups and Europe. The top players want to play a lot of matches. I have experience too because I’m playing in Europe for the 12th consecutive season, six in the Champions League and six in the Europa League so my habit is also this.
“We are going to balance each matches physically with the players but these player are prepared to play Thursday and Sunday and then we have players to make changes for some matches. But if I decide to play a someone for three matches in a week, they are available to do that.”
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