We head into our first game of 2026 at the top of the Premier League table and Mikel Arteta believes there is a hunger within the camp to keep our winning run going.
Our victory over Aston Villa on December 30 was our fourth in a row in the competition, putting us four points ahead of second-placed Manchester City at the start of a new calendar year.
With five months remaining in the season, Mikel believes his side is showing the desire needed to achieve their goals in 2026.
He said: "That's what they transmit every single day when they’re with us, training or in every match. You can see the desire, you can see the energy they put in, how much they want it, and that's what we need. There's still five months to go, take it day by day, enjoy that process of being where we are and go for it.
"[The mood in the camp was] very good, obviously, after the game against a really top opposition, again to perform and to win in the manner that we did, great. [Now we] focus on Bournemouth, we know how tough it’s going to be, tomorrow’s game, and everybody is going to be at it."
We head to the Vitality Stadium looking to avenge our defeat on the south coast last season, going down 2-0 following an early red card to William Saliba. We also fell to a 2-1 defeat against Andoni Iraola's side at Emirates Stadium in May.
Keen to learn from our defeats to the Cherries last campaign, Mikel said: "Well, I know they were two very different games. Obviously, a game in which, until minute 30, Saliba gets surprisingly sent off, after, it was a different game and we managed as well and we had some chances but we lost the game. At home, [it was ] a display that, at the beginning, was very dominant and that ended up in a really poor way for us.
"So, a lot to learn, huge respect for them. I know Andoni really well and what he’s doing, I think it's incredible and I'm watching all the games that they played this season and against the top sides, how difficult they made it and how they haven’t got results against them as well is difficult to understand."
At the halfway mark we sit on 45 points from 19 matches. When asked about the title race, Mikel said there's a long way to go before the season concludes at the end of May.
He said: "Well, it's where we are and we are really happy with the position that we are in. It can always be better. There are things to improve obviously and the only thing we know is that it's always the next game and we know how tough it is for every opponent to beat them.
"We are still in early January so we have another five months to go and so far we have to do much more."
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
