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Premier League: Arsene Wenger says Arsenal must maintain their application

Arsene Wenger Arsenal Prem Lge
Image: Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss demands focus from his players

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes his players must maintain their application in order to achieve success this season.

The Gunners signalled a return to form with a battling 2-0 win at Manchester City before then securing safe passage past Brighton into the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 3-2 victory.

They could now climb back into the top four of the Premier League if they earn a fifth straight win in all competitions when they host Aston Villa on Sunday.

Wenger said: "We want complete focus and commitment to be completely concentrated on what we want to achieve.

"We have to be very cautious with the mood in our job because the swings are very quick.

"You need a good balance between an optimistic mood and urgency as well.

"We are in a job where, of course, you want the level of concentration very high and that is what we want to achieve now.

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"We go into a period in the next four months that will decide our season, so we have to be conscious that our commitment has to be 100 per cent."

But Wenger insists there can be no sense of complacency at the Emirates Stadium against a Villa side who are the lowest scorers in the Premier League with just 11 goals from 22 matches.

Wenger believes Paul Lambert's men have quality in attack with Gabriel Agbonlahor, Christian Benteke and Andreas Weimann all capable of finding the net.

"There is a distortion between the quality Villa have going forward (and their goal record)," the Gunners boss said.

"When you look at the names they have on their team sheet, they have Benteke, Agbonlahor and Weimann, who can all score goals.

"They suffered a lot from Agbonlahor's injury after Benteke was out for a long time.

"But when everybody's there, it is a team who look quite dangerous going forward."

Watch Arsenal v Aston Villa live on Sky Sports 1 HD. Coverage begins from 12.30pm today.