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| Arsene Wenger reckons his Arsenal side are ready to get back to the top of the Premier League table |
TWENTY months after Arsenal were last top of the table, Arsene Wenger believes the Gunners are now ready to go back there.
A win against Everton at the Emirates tonight would enable Arsenal to leapfrog Manchester City and claim the top perch ahead of the Manchester derby tomorrow.
The last time Arsenal were at the pinnacle was when they went to Liverpool in top spot on February 8, 2014, only to be thumped 5-1.
However, after an impressive display in the face of a rampant Bayern Munich on Tuesday, making the most of what little possession they were afforded to win 2-0, Wenger believes his current squad are in a mood to claim a much firmer grasp on first place.
"We have a better discipline," Wenger said. "People reproached us many times - 'Okay, Arsenal play football but they are a bit fragile'. Now we are more mature, for sure.
"Before, maybe, when we were not dominating completely the game, we were a bit insecure. But on Tuesday night, Bayern had a lot of the ball, but we could handle that. We have shown that we can handle the pressure."
While Arsenal have collected more points in 2015 than any of their Premier League rivals, Roberto Martinez has challenged Everton to tear down the "psychological barriers" that are stalling progress.
Everton have not won at Arsenal since the 1995-96 season, but Martinez said:
"We are overcoming that [hoodoo]. There are landmarks that you need to achieve - winning at Old Trafford [two seasons ago] and doing the double over United is one.
"Winning against Arsenal at the Emirates or at Anfield would clearly be other ones. You've got significant psychological barriers if you want that, as a team, you need to test yourselves against.
"Those are landmarks that we are quite open about trying to reach."
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| Everton boss Roberto Martinez told his players to tear down 'psychological barriers' to progress |
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