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Soccer

Former Arsenal player highlights reasons for club's increased competitiveness this season

Former Arsenal player highlights reasons for club's increased competitiveness this season(C)Getty Images

Arsenal stand alone atop the Premier League standings with less than a month left to play.

While the Gunners have played two more games than title challengers Manchester City, they have still put themselves in a good position to fight for the league crown until the end of the season. This is an improvement on last season, when the North London side began to fall behind City at this point in the campaign and never recovered, finishing second behind Pep Guardiola's side.

Even though a similar fate may await Arsenal this year, a former player believes there's something different about the current squad in comparison to last year's side.

Speaking to Lord Ping, William Gallas gave his reaction to Arsenal's 5-0 destruction of Chelsea earlier this week, noting the Gunners' willingness to keep pressing forward even after the result was well in hand.

Also a former Chelsea player, Gallas found the match bittersweet.

"That is a crazy result, but a good one for Arsenal," Gallas said. 

"Everyone knows about Arsenal’s attacking threat – they’ve scored many this year and, this season, they’ve changed their mentality. They are ruthless. They keep going and play to score as many goals as possible.

"The score line didn’t flatter Arsenal. They could have won by more. As a former Chelsea defender, it was really difficult to see that performance.

"Full credit to Arsenal, they didn’t give Chelsea an opportunity to breathe, even though they did have a few chances to score.

"If I’m not mistaken, I think that this game will be in the history books for the wrong reasons from a Chelsea perspective. I think it was the first time that they have been beaten 5-0 in a London derby."

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