Mikel Arteta wants to see Arsenal scoring between 90 and 100 goals a season as the Arsenal manager looks to step up the next part of his revolution at the club.

When Mikel Arteta was appointed manager it was clear that his first priority was to sort out Arsenal’s awful defence.

It wasn’t that Arsenal had been bad at the back for a while, their problems were ingrained in the side for so long it was not unreasonable to ask if it was always going to be that way.

Arteta got about his work quickly, drilling the team and giving them something they’d been missing for a long time – a plan.

As a result, however, the club suffered offensively as they tightened up at the back. It was not, most Arsenal fans would agree, fun to watch.

But big journeys happen through lots of little steps and then next one Arteta’s path seems to be to get the team scoring far more goals as well as conceding far fewer. That’s a good plan, if you ask me.

“To get that balance right is not easy,” Arteta told a press conference ahead of Sunday’s home game against Aston Villa, who are level on 12 points with Arsenal but have played one game fewer. They’ve also scored nine to Arsenal’s seven.

“It is something that we have been working on in the last two weeks.

“You could see last night [Thursday] that we were much more fluent in attack. We scored the goals and we had more opportunities.

“To be a top team, you have to score 90-100 goals (a season) if you want to be competing with the top guns.

“It is a challenge for us and an area we have to improve and get better.

“The word is consistency and it is what we have been lacking over the years to fight with the top teams.

“It is not about doing it once, it is about doing it every three days. We know the level in this league, everyone can beat you and if you are not at your best you will suffer.”