Arsenal equal incredible Man Utd 100-game record after securing narrow win over Crystal Palace

Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, the Gunners prided themselves on an ability to keep clean sheets. The famous terrace chant of “1-0 to the Arsenal” was born, with scorelines of that nature becoming common at Highbury and on the road.

Arsenal have pieced together plenty of iconic teams since then, including the fabled ‘Invincibles’ of 2003-04. They remain the last squad to deliver a Premier League title for the most ambitious of outfits. Mikel Arteta is charged with the task of bringing that barren run to a close.

The Gunners have gone close across the last three seasons, finishing as runners-up behind Manchester City and Liverpool. The plan is to get over that line in 2025-26 by leaving everybody else trailing in their wake.

A positive start has been made to that quest, with Arteta’s side opening up a four-point lead at the top of the table. Bournemouth and Sunderland are their closest challengers for now, with City six points off the pace and defending champions Liverpool now seven adrift after hitting an uncharacteristic wobble.

Arsenal ensured that their lead at the summit remained intact when edging out London rivals Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium. Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game in that contest against his former club. At the other end of the field, another shutout was secured.

William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes have struck up the most formidable of centre-half partnerships, while David Raya is a Golden Glove-winning goalkeeper. As a unit, they are notoriously difficult to breach.

Arteta told reporters of seeing a fifth successive clean sheet in all competitions picked up against Palace: “I just told the boys that I value more this victory than any other victory this season. Because we knew the difficulty of it, you come after playing every three days, you have a big opportunity as well with the things that happened during this weekend and I knew, you know, we play against a team that in my opinion has been one of the best recently in terms of organisation, how difficult they made it, how frustrated they can make you and the moment that you lose that concentration they will punish you for sure.

“And we have managed to be very stable, playing the game that we have to play. In the first half a bit stuck, we found a way to score the goal in the second one, we attacked better and we were more fluent. But with 1-0 we knew that we had to suffer because it's a team that has to score goals against any other opponent this season, so to keep the clean sheet is very, very important.”

The Gunners have not conceded more than one goal in any competitive fixture this season. That ensures that they are always in with a chance of taking something from any given game. That has been the case for some time.

Arsenal have gone 100 consecutive games in all competitions without conceding three goals in a match. They are just the second team in the English league to achieve that, with Manchester United having done likewise between October 2016 and August 2018.

Arsenal conceded on three occasions in a Premier League clash with Luton Town on December 5, 2023, but scored four goals themselves in that fixture and still took all three points. They were also breached on three occasions in a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to West Ham on November 1, 2023.

Close to two years have passed since Arsenal were last left that open at the back. That steeliness has helped to keep Arteta’s side in contention for major honours. They now need to work on getting back in the trophy-winning habit.

Arsenal's next three games will be in different competitions, with tangible success being pursued on multiple fronts. They are due to face Brighton in the Carabao Cup fourth round on Wednesday. They will then travel to Burnley in the Premier League, before taking in a Champions League clash with Slavia Praha.