Heading into the international break, Arsenal have won four of our last five Premier League games and the last two on the bounce.

The problem is, we have lost two Champions League games in the meantime and fell victim to some dodgy decisions at Stamford Bridge. With Manchester City two points clear, Arsenal are in the title race but can’t afford to get caught too far behind.

Petr Čech, signed from Chelsea last summer, knows a thing or two about what it takes to win the league. The 33-year-old goalkeeper won four league titles during his 11 years with the Blues.

“We need to be more consistent in the way we put a run together, and avoid the games where you switch off,” Čech told Sarah Shephard of Sport.

“I think that’s the only thing, because in terms of the quality of the team and the motivation of everyone, you can see that we can compete with everybody. But we need to make sure that every game we are 100% consistent and focused. Sometimes this is the hardest part.”

Arsenal, particularly in Europe, have made silly errors and cost themselves games but to win the title we need to grind out results even when we aren’t playing well.

That means cutting out the mistakes, and Čech knows it.

“You need to make sure you do the basics right in every game. That gives you the platform to build on – and then, if you don’t have a particularly great day, you can make sure you still get the maximum out of it.”

So far this season, Arsène Wenger’s side have rarely hit the heights you’d expect of them. A 2-0 defeat of Stoke City was comfortable, we played well going forward at Leicester City and we beat Manchester United incredibly convincingly. While it’d be nice to see that more often, you can’t bank on it every week.

Instead, results like the tight and slightly fortunate defeats of Crystal Palace and Newcastle United are what will, ultimately, propel us to the title. You can’t play brilliantly every week, but avoiding errors when we play badly will stand us in good stead for the rest of the campaign.