Saturday 22 October 2016 08:47, UK
Laurent Koscielny believes Arsenal's ability to grind out victories could be the deciding factor in their Premier League title bid.
Arsene Wenger's men can move to the top of the Premier League - albeit for a day - with victory over Middlesbrough on Saturday.
On their day, the Gunners are more than a match for opposition teams, exemplified by their scintillating 6-0 Champions League victory over Ludogorets.
However, as their early October trip to Burnley - in which Koscielny struck a stoppage-time winner - illustrated, there will be times when the club's philosophy must make way for a more pragmatic approach.
And Koscielny believes this flexibility to adapt is key to the Gunners' hopes of ending their 12-year wait to be crowned champions.
"If you want to be champions, you have to win the tough games," he exclusively told Soccer Saturday.
"The most important thing is to win games when you are not playing well. We need to come out of games saying: 'it was difficult, but we won 1-0'.
"It's important to have this during the season whenever we have bad moments or when it's difficult to play our football.
"We need to stay strong like a unit, defend together and win games 1-0, that's the most important thing.
We need to stay strong like a unit, defend together and win games 1-0. If you want to be champions you have to win the tough games
"In football, it's always difficult to play at the same level, with the same quality of passing and movement.
"Sometimes, you're in defensive positions more and have to fight with your team-mates to keep the clean sheet. You must adapt to different situations.
"We have improved with this because against Chelsea we had the ball and scored from three opportunities, while against Burnley it was more difficult because the game was more physical and it was difficult finding solutions.
"We scored in the last minute so we need to keep our philosophy, which is to play with movement and with our passing, but sometimes we have to play differently."
A run of six consecutive victories has propelled Arsenal to the summit of the Premier League alongside fellow leaders Manchester City with eight games played.
The Gunners are also well-placed to reach the knockout stages in Europe's elite club competition after an impressive start to their European campaign.
Despite this, Koscielny refused to get carried away with Arsenal's start, adding: "We beat Ludogorets 6-0 but we need to keep our feet on the floor.
"The squad is better, we are more experienced and we have played together a long time.
"The league is very long - it's a marathon, not a sprint. We can see from last season that it's difficult to stay high in the table."
