Francis Coquelin has hailed Arsenal’s performance against Man United in which we won 3-0 but explained that we need to carry on getting these results in order to challenge for the title.

Coquelin has been part of some huge results for Arsenal. Last season one of his first matches after we recalled him from Charlton was against Man City at the Etihad, which we won 2-0. The defensive midfielder showed maturity and was an integral part of the win.

“I think it is a very good performance against a big team,” he said. “I think everyone expected us not to win today and maybe we proved a lot of people wrong. I think inside the dressing room we knew we could do good things this season.”

Now the 24-year-old has called upon the team to continue with these results against big teams.

“We said it from the beginning of the season that we could be contenders but we have to be consistent,” Coq continued. “I think the most difficult thing now is to carry on getting the results.

“In the last three games we haven’t lost against Manchester United. Slowly we are getting stronger against the big teams.

“We beat Manchester City last season and now Manchester United so I think it is all about consistency. They made this game tough and the small teams are really strong as well and we need to get a result every week.

“I think overall it was a good performance from us and we would like to do that again in the coming weeks.”

The Frenchman’s right. One good result against a big team isn’t enough to win the title, especially if we go on to lose our next match. We need to consistently be beating our rivals, as well as the teams lower down in the league, in order to really challenge.

What is clear is that the 3-0 win against United will be a huge mental boost.