Cesc Fabregas believes Mikel Arteta will put "pressure" on his players to maintain their high standards in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal re-established their five-point lead over Manchester City in second by beating Manchester United 3-2 on Sunday. Eddie Nketiah scored a brace - including a last-minute winner - to help them recover from Marcus Rashford's early stunner.
The Gunners have a game in hand on Pep Guardiola's side and are on course to pick-up a record-equalling 100 points this season. Yet they still have 19 Premier League games to play - including two against champions City - in their pursuit of a first title in 19 years.
Former Arsenal skipper Fabregas recognises this but believes Arteta will push his players to the limit. He told Sky Sports after Sunday's game: "They [City] will [try to] hunt them down for sure, but I still believe that Arsenal have the resources to win the league this year.
"They have a manager that knows what he’s doing, they have a manager that will put pressure on his players, and what I like today with this young group of players was in the last five minutes they handled the game really well.
"You see Nketiah going into the corner [to wind down the clock] and before maybe in my years we wouldn’t have done that, we would have just tried to play and score a fourth. I really like that mentality, they know exactly what they’re doing, and I think it feels it’s the right moment and the right group of players to achieve that."
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Arsenal went into the recent World Cup in Qatar with a five-point lead at the top of the table. At that point, City were still the favourites for the title due to Arsenal's nightmare run of fixtures - which included games against Newcastle, Tottenham and United.
Yet those matches are now in the past and Arteta's side still have their advantage. They have games against Everton and Brentford on the horizon before welcoming City to the Emirates on February 15, which promises to be the biggest game of the season so far.
After that, Arsenal must travel to Liverpool before facing City at the Etihad in April. They also have games against Chelsea and Newcastle before the campaign ends in May. The Gunners will be hoping to put together a long winning run over the coming months.
The stats suggest Arsenal have a great chance of success. Only four teams have collected 50 points at the halfway mark during the Premier League era: Chelsea in 2004/05 (52 points), City in 2017/18 (55), Liverpool in 2018/19 (51) and Liverpool in 2019/20 (52).
Of those four teams, only Liverpool in 2018/19 failed to win the title. Furthermore, Arsenal have more points at this stage in the season than their last Premier League title-winning side - Arsene Wenger's 'Invincibles' - did in 2003/04.
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown believes there are similarities between the two sides. "I sensed the same belief and desire at Emirates Stadium on Sunday that we had at Highbury when I won Premier League titles with Arsenal back in the day," he told the BBC.
