Laurent Koscielny praised Arsenal’s in-form defence as they prepare to take on the Premier League’s most dangerous attack on Sunday.
A 2-0 victory over Bournemouth last week, Arsenal’s first win since 2 January, saw Arsenal keep a clean sheet for the third time in their last four league games. Only Tottenham have conceded fewer than the Gunners 22.
Their next match brings a far greater test as they host Leicester City in a game they can ill-afford to lose if they wish to remain in the title hunt. Arsenal are currently five points off the pace-setters and, with Tottenham travelling to Manchester City in another title clash on Sunday, will be desperate to reaffirm their title credentials.
With the league’s top scorer, Jamie Vardy, leading the line Koscielny and company are set for a tough test but Arsenal’s recent run has the defender convinced they can rise to the occasion.
Reflecting on the Bournemouth win he said: “All the team played well and did their job and if you want to win games you need to score too. We kept a clean sheet and we need to be more confident and defend together but we will be happy with this.
“It was important to win because we needed to stay high up the table with Leicester, Tottenham and Manchester City. We didn’t play well during January and we didn’t win a lot of points. We needed to start a good run with this game and we stayed strong at the back, and scored two goals with our first two opportunities.
Player Ratings: Bournemouth vs Arsenal
“We had three games without scoring so it was important for our players.”
The two most recent of those clean sheets have come with Gabriel selected ahead Per Mertesacker, who is yet to appear for Arsenal since being sent off against Chelsea despite having served his ban.
Kosicleny was impressed with his team-mate’s contribution in what was just a 13th league start in the year since he moved from Villarreal as he helped to repel a Bournemouth side who had much the better of the play in the second half.
“You know Gabby, he is a very good player,” he said. “He likes his duels and he can play with the ball and passes.
“He played very well but the whole back four played well because we stayed together. Sometimes in your game you have a difficult situation but we stayed focus on our job.”
