WITH the honeymoon period winding down, Unai Emery has rightly won praise for instilling a steely “get-the-job-done” mentality in his Arsenal side since taking charge in the summer.
 
At times, the Emery epoch hasn’t been pretty. Take for example the sombre 0-0 with Sporting Lisbon on Thursday. In another of their Europa League outings came the shipping of two carelessly conceded goals against Ukrainian side Vorskla.

Before that was the frightfully touch-and-go 3-2 win over Cardiff.
 
But importantly, the Spaniard seems to be doing enough to win hearts and minds of all key stakeholders, united by the current sequence of 15 matches unbeaten.

Only the ficklest fan would begrudge his tally of five clean sheets in 17 matches, three of those coming in Uefa’s second-rate competition.

Emery is keen to use the past as a springboard for progression but refuses to dwell on it too long. “Taking confidence from things like winning matches and also when you feel on the pitch you’ve [matched] the capacity to battle teams like Liverpool,” he explained. “Sunday is another opportunity for us to continue our confidence.”
 
When the outgoing Arsene Wenger declared that this team have more quality than people gave them credit for, few would have thought his successor would develop them even further. That is exactly what Emery has done though. Impressionable youngsters like Hector Bellerin and Alex Iwobi, both staples of the previous regime, have praised the impact of the new coach on their individual game.

“I see the progress in this team,” Emery says. “The progress is by creating confidence and also creating tactically different ways to improve. We need to continue our way of aggression with and without the ball.”
 
The team have shown flashes of brilliance so far in the campaign and have held their own considering they’ve already faced the three teams currently sitting on top of the Premier League.
 
If the Gunners can endure the notoriously turbulent month of November with their unbeaten record untarnished, it will bolster confidence levels going into a tough Christmas period that sees them host rivals Tottenham twice and includes visits to Manchester United and Liverpool, all before the new year.
 
Emery denied that the horrendous ankle injury suffered by Danny Welbeck on Thursday had any impact on the team’s performance. After landing awkwardly, the forward was stretchered off on 30 minutes.
 
“When one player is injured like that and the others see, it can [play] on your mind. But I think the players concentrated on the match and we forgot the injury from the next minute but when we finished the first thing is to ask for him.”
 
Welbeck is the Gunners third top scorer this season with five in all competitions, but the team aren’t short of goals coming from elsewhere. Thirteen players have scored for Arsenal so far, equalled only by Manchester City and Chelsea.
 
Arsenal fans can also look forward to the return of club captain Laurent Koscielny as well as Nacho Monreal and Konstantinos Mavropanos, all set to return to action after the upcoming international break if not before.
 
Having only had one transfer window to bring in new recruits, Emery has a way to go before his merits can truly be judged. Until that time comes, a continuation of the dogged fighting spirit and tactical astuteness should be enough to extend this unbeaten streak a little longer and, ultimately, keep everybody happy.