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Arsenal remain the team to beat in the Premier League this season with Mikel Arteta 's side firing on all cylinders. The Gunners clinched their fourth league win in a row on Sunday when squeezing past Crystal Palace 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium. It was also their fourth game running where they've kept a clean sheet with their watertight defence remaining as dominant as they've been for the last three years. The north London side have won 11 of their 13 games across all competitions, having kept a whopping 10 clean sheets in that span. Top in their domestic league while possessing a 100% win rate in the Champions League , attention now turns to the Carabao Cup for Arteta's side who host Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday. Mirror Football brings you the latest news coming out of the Emirates. Arsenal have been the stand-out team nine games into the Premier League season but there are still 29 games to play. Despite the topsy-turvy nature of football, Gunners great Paul Merson is already convinced his former side are destined to taste league glory for the first time since the Invincibles season of 2003/04. Speaking on Sky Sports , Merson said: "I don’t see anyone stopping Arsenal . They are an efficient machine but with super footballers in that machine. They remind me of the Chelsea team of old under Jose Mourinho . “As soon as that Chelsea team got in front it was game over. It was the same playing in my Arsenal team. Get a goal and it was back to the halfway line, and you could see in the opposition faces, they knew it was over." He cited their defensive prowess as a key attribute and admitted he'd be "flabbergasted" if they didn't go on to hoist the title at the end of the season. He explained: "I’d be flabbergasted if Arsenal didn’t win the league. "People will say there are 30 games left but we are only a once-in-a-season strike from Dominik Szoboszlai from asking the question: ‘Who beats Arsenal this season?’ They have the best defensive record in the whole of Europe, so you don’t have to score multiple goals to win football matches." As set-pieces continue to grow in importance in the modern game - with the Gunners a major proponent of them - Jamie Carragher was on hand to lament the amount of long throws being used following Brentford's 3-2 victory against Liverpool . "I used to like that dynamic of the game," the Reds legend said on Monday Night Football . "I am frustrated with the fact that I feel like every team this season has taken a long throw at some stage. You see the numbers and it's off the scale." The implementation of set piece tactics in the Premier League has grown hugely in recent years and the Gunners have been the most successful of the bunch when it comes to strategy being converted into goals. Arteta's side have scored 11 goals via set pieces in the Premier League this season, two more than any other side with 69% of their goals this season coming from set pieces (11/16). It was on The Overlap , that Gary Neville said Carragher hated long throws and the trend football seems to be going in, claims the Liverpool icon has taken to X to rectify. He wrote: "For the 100th time I didn’t say I hate set pieces or long throws!!!! What I don’t like is every team taking long throws, & the time it’s taking out of the game. I totally get teams doing it who struggle & lack quality of getting the ball in the box, I also like seeing how teams. cope with them. "But teams who have great technical players & have spent 100 millions on them should be getting the ball in play as quick as they can to get these players on the ball. I’m no football snob but this is taking the game backwards!" Arsenal's defensive strength has been a consistent strength of Arteta's teams in recent years. Having conceded the least goals in the Premier League for the last two seasons, the backline of the north London side look as impervious as ever. With just three goals conceded in nine league games this season, with two of them coming in open play, Jurrien Timber admitted the defensive dominance of his team has filled them with confidence. Speaking to the official Arsenal website , the Dutchman said: "It gives you confidence and it shows that we’re doing really well, and also, if it’s for multiple games in a row, I think it says something about consistency. "We just have to keep that going game-by-game, keep improving, look at what we can do better still, but also take that feeling with you, that confidence and go into the next game with the same mindset." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
