Emery is not on song yet

UNAI EMERY has told fans it is too soon to sing “We’ve got our Arsenal are back” as he believes his team cannot yet be considered title contenders.

Away supporters were delighted with the 5-1 thrashing of Fulham – their ninth successive win under the Spanish coach. It took Arsenal up to fourth place and within two points of the leaders after two seasons finishing outside the Champions League places under Arsene Wenger.

But speaking ahead of Monday’s home match with Leicester, Emery said: “I’m not agreeing totally with the response of the supporters. I think we need to improve a lot.

“I think we have to continue doing a lot of the things to get better. Our demands need to be very high.

“The supporters can enjoy it with us but also we’re speaking with reality every day.

“We need to improve because for example the match against Fulham was a very good result and a very good game for 90 minutes. But in the first 45 minutes I thought we needed to do better. If we are remembering the last match at the Emirates [against Watford], we won but not playing like we want, with the control against the opposition.

“For me now, the most important thing is not to rush. The next game against Leicester is very big, very difficult. We need every single player and our mentality together to be stronger than in the last match.” The Gunners lost their first two league matches under Emery to Manchester City and Chelsea. He added: “We need to be calm because we beat a lot of opposition teams with very poor performances.

“We need to stay with the best teams in the Premier League. To stay with them, we need to do better and get better at different things.”

Emery said Petr Cech was “very close” to returning from his hamstring injury but Greece defender Sokratis was a doubt after picking up an ankle injury on international duty.

And the Gunners boss avoided questions on the chances of Aaron Ramsey getting another contract offer or leaving in January – six months before the end of his current deal.

“For me, January is very far,” he said. “I’m thinking about Monday’s match first. In football, the future is tomorrow. I explain to every player, I want the mentality for the next match. Individual things are not for me to speak about now.”

Arsenal’s Monday night game is followed by a Europa League trip to Sporting Lisbon next Thursday.

Emery is unconcerned about Mesut Ozil’s desire despite a suggestion by Wenger that the playmaker’s retirement from international football could affect his motivation.

Wenger said this week that Ozil should come out of international retirement because otherwise he “loses a bit” of his drive.

But Emery said of the German: “His motivation is very clear.”

We need a stronger mentality