Arsenal have kept three Premier League sheets in a row, with the latest coming on Saturday afternoon and setting the team up perfectly for a 2-0 defeat of Stoke City.

Spaniard Héctor Bellerín missed the opening game of the season but has been an ever-present in the side when fit. Becoming a key man in the defence, Arsenal have conceded just once in the five games Bellerín has started this season (including the Community Shield).

The latest game saw the Gunners dominate Stoke to get their first home win of the season at the third attempt.

“It is nice to get the first win at home finally,” the defender told Arsenal Player after the game. “It was a tough game and we had a lot of chances in the first half.

“Sometimes when you don’t score you can pay for it, but even when we had scored we were keeping tight at the back and defending properly. In the second half we got our second reward but I think we should have got it earlier because we had a few chances.”

Theo Walcott missed a number of chances before and after scoring the first goal of the game, and Olivier Giroud also missed a great opportunity shortly before he scored the second.

Playing from the left, Alexis Sánchez wasn’t far away from getting on the scoresheet in the first half but Bellerín is encouraged by the chances Arsenal are creating, and have created all season. The difference on Saturday was that Arsenal actually took a couple of them.

“I think the chances are coming. We were playing with the ball but we needed that creativity up front to convert the chances.

“Finally we look like we are getting there but we need to be more efficient. We need to get the same efficiency we got last season to get back to those ways.”

Defensively things are going very well, and Bellerín can be delighted with his part in it.

“The team keeps looking solid and the best thing to do is keep the ball. I think that is the reason why the team is doing really well is not just [down to] the defence. The fact that we are keeping possession means we are playing the games our way.”

Two more clean sheets over the course of the next week would go down very well indeed with huge fixtures against Dinamo Zagreb and Chelsea coming up. On current form Bellerín is absolutely certain to keep his place.