No anger, no recriminations and no feeling sorry for themselves. Granit Xhaka and his Arsenal team-mates are confident that they are still masters of their own title destiny.
Unflinching and undaunted, the Switzerland midfielder stopped for the tape recorders and the microphones in the wake of Sunday’s collapse at West Ham. Confident and articulate, his leadership in summing up the situation impressed at a time when some have convinced themselves that the Gunners are wobbling.
And in many ways he is right - nobody believed Arsenal, top four contenders back in August, would even be in this position at the start of the season. Did you?
So while the serial winning ex-pros would regard them not winning the Premier League after being eight points clear - and leading 2-0 at Liverpool and West Ham - as a massive failure, Xhaka isn’t contemplating surrender.
Victory in their remaining matches, starting with Southampton on Friday - and at Manchester City next week - will see Arsenal win a first title in 19 years.
“We took this challenge until now and nobody was thinking about it before the season started,” said Xhaka. “So, let’s take the challenge as well.
“Liverpool away and West Ham were always going to be two very difficult games. We knew that. So let’s refresh everything now. Let’s analyse the game and I am sure that you will see a reaction on Friday.
“We have to watch the game again to analyse why this happened twice in a row. But I am not worried too much.
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“If anyone thinks that we go through the last eight games without any dropped points or winning and smashing the teams, I think they are not in the right position.
“Nothing has changed [from] before the game. We know that we will face Southampton at home and then go to the Etihad, with the same objective as before the West Ham game .
“I am not angry. I am disappointed of course, because you had a chance against West Ham after 2-0 to take the three points.
“But this is football, you can’t win the games if you don’t perform over 90 minutes. We didn’t do it. But we still have everything in our hands. If you win the games we have left, you know what happens.”
Interestingly, while Mikel Arteta was in the post-match press conference questioning his team’s mentality and their killer instinct, Xhaka took the opposite view.
“It is not about the mentality,” he said. “For sure, it’s not. If something is not going well, it is easy to show the finger to someone else. Now, it is time to be together because there are seven games to go.”
Some critics pointed to Xhaka himself for stirring Liverpool fans by clashing with Trent Alexander Arnold at Anfield last week. Others suggested Arsenal’s time wasting at West Ham wound up the home supporters at the London Stadium.
But Xhaka went on: “Listen, we don’t really care about who is waking up the fans or not. This is not our job. They are supporters for West Ham or Liverpool.
“If they support the team or not, it’s not our problem. But we allowed them back to 2-1 too easily. The 2-2 is too easy. And like this, we didn’t win the last two games.”
So is he worried that Manchester City are coming good at the right time? Has he been watching?
“It’s okay, we are not looking at them,” he said. “Let’s win our games first and, if we win the rest of the games or we don’t drop points - you know what will happen better than me.”
