Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has insisted that his side have the maturity to win the club's first Premier League title in over a decade, with the Gunners currentlysitting level on points with leaders Manchester City.
The club have typically struggled in November under Wenger - scoring fewer points per game in the penultimate month of the year than any other - but the Frenchman insisted that his side's mature mentality could see them buck that trend this season and put themselves in title contention.
Arsene Wenger insists Gunners have 'maturity' to last the distance in title race https://t.co/xMTjEzl56P pic.twitter.com/6BtgtbQn3Q
Quoted by theMirror, he said:Maturity is what you want to show. I believe so, yes, but that's what we want to show over a longer distance, you know, and that's what is at stake.
We now have some difficult games coming up, we have a difficult November, so by the end of the November we'll know more about ourselves, but the desire and the mentality is great in the side."
The Gunners came close to stumbling against Sunderland on the weekend, allowing the relegation-threatened Black Cats back into a game which the north London side had dominated when Petr Cech gave away a penalty with around a quarter of the game remaining.
Olivier Giroud comes off the bench to score twice for Arsenal and end Sunderland's fightback #SUNARS report: https://t.co/EPCJ6nFoPb pic.twitter.com/FmxsEZJHSZ
Jermain Defoe equalised for David Moyes' side from the spot, but the Gunners didn't collapse after the goal as they may have done in previous seasons - scoring three times in seven minutes to put the game out of sight.
Wenger continued:We have a great togetherness and we have quality as well, so they are good ingredients, but we have to show that we can do it week in, week out.This win strengthens our belief that we can bounce back from the disappointing result we had last week and that we can also bounce back within a game when it doesn't go our way.
Overall I believe it can convince the team that we're playing the right way.�
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