Viktor Gyokeres insisted Arsenal's belief in their Premier League title chances had never wavered, after a 3-0 win over Fulham moved them six points clear at the summit.
Gyokeres scored twice and supplied an assist for Bukayo Saka as the Gunners cruised to victory at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, piling pressure on second-placed Manchester City.
City play the first of their two games in hand against Everton on Monday, and if both teams win all their remaining matches, the title will be decided on goal difference.
Back-to-back defeats against Bournemouth and City knocked Arsenal last month, as they went from nine points clear to briefly surrendering their position as leaders.
But when speaking to Sky Sports at full-time, Gyokeres insisted nobody in the Arsenal camp ever lost faith.
"I think both the performance and result was important. We controlled the game very well," the striker said.
"At this stage, we have to win the games that are left and we showed today we can have a good performance and get the three points.
"We always go into games believing we are going to play well and create a lot of chances. Today we did that and we enjoyed it.
"We've never stopped believing and we're not going to. We will keep going. There's still a lot to play for and it's onto the next one.
"It's been a good week. We've got some good results. We're on a good path and we have to stay there."
2.39 - Only Bournemouth against Chelsea in December (2.77) and Manchester City against Leeds United in November (2.67) have a side registered a higher non-penalty xG total in the first half of a Premier League match this season than Arsenal's 2.39 against Fulham. Blistering. pic.twitter.com/ra1tFIITn5
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 2, 2026
Gyokeres was directly involved in three goals in a single match for Arsenal for the first time, while he both scored and assisted in the first half of a league game for the first time since doing so for Sporting CP against Farense in September 2023.
His 21 goals in all competitions, meanwhile, are the most by any player in their debut campaign for Arsenal since Alexis Sanchez in 2014-15 (25).
Arsenal have now won 15 of their last 19 Premier League home games (D2 L2), recording two more wins and four more clean sheets (11) than any other side in the competition at home in that time (since their final home game of 2024-25).
And, with the Gunners coming off the back of a draining 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, Mikel Arteta was particularly proud of their showing.
"I'm extremely happy. It was a really tough match to play. We came back to Madrid very late on Thursday. We gave so much in that match and had to play a team in good form," Arteta told BBC Match of the Day.
"I think the team played incredibly well. We dominated and showed the hunger we discussed before the game.
"We have the opportunity to win two major competitions. We're games away from achieving that. The boys feel extremely privileged to be in that position. They showed the kind of team we are."
Fulham's camp was hit by a virus ahead of the game, but Marco Silva refused to use that as an excuse for their poor showing when speaking to Sky Sports.
"That's the easiest excuse, but we started with 11," he said. "As a whole, we should have done much better. If you don't do the basics well you're not going to be able to compete.
"You have to go through these difficult spells in a football match, but the other things have to be there – the basic way to defend your box. We have to be much stronger in the way we defended. We were not at that level this afternoon."