Arsenal matched their all-time consecutive clean sheet record on Tuesday night, but Mikel Arteta says the players still want to do better.
On Tuesday night, Arsenal kept a clean sheet against Slavia Prague in the Champions League, but they had to come through a late scare to achieve it.
3-0 up and cruising, Arsenal fans were shocked to see the referee point to the penalty spot for a supposed foul by Ben White. White had won the ball with a high foot, but the referee believed he’d caught an opponent while doing so.
The replays showed that White got the ball, that the opponent had his foot just as high in the air, and that there was very little contact – if any. On VAR review, the decision was overturned and Arsenal held out for the clean sheet.
That particular clean sheet was significant, as it was a joint-club-record eighth in a row. Not since 1903 had Arsenal managed to keep eight consecutive clean sheets in all competitions.
Mikel Arteta was pleased to match that record, though he insists the players are still hungry for more.
“Well, that’s a long time ago, so it tells you about the difficulty of achieving it,” Arteta said. “There is a lot of work there obviously to achieve that.
“The most pleasing thing, probably not the records, is the mindset of the players. They are talking there about how we can still do better. There were still one or two situations that we could’ve resolved better.
“So if we do that, we can keep improving, and that record will have a bigger meaning.”
Arsenal now have the chance to break their own record outright, as a clean sheet away to Sunderland this weekend would be the first time ever the club have managed nine in a row.
That won’t be easy though, with Sunderland sitting fourth in the Premier League table and recently beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The team will have to earn it.