Mikel Arteta wants his Arsenal players to give off an Invincible aura during their title sprint tussle with Liverpool and Manchester City.
The Gunners travel to Brighton knowing there is no room for slip-ups in the most exciting title race in decades. Arsenal have not lifted the Premier League trophy since 2004 - when Arsene Wenger's Gunners went the entire season unbeaten.
Invincible star Gilberto recalled how opposition players got that losing feeling before a ball was kicked. "When we got into that Highbury tunnel, we knew that we were going to win the game," he said.
Gunners boss Arteta knew exactly how that felt having suffered a 7-0 Highbury loss 19 years ago as an Everton player. He said: "I have been in the tunnel playing with a different shirt looking at the Invincibles and I had that feeling - tonight is going to be really tough.
"Hopefully we can create that. That would be something very positive for the team." Arsenal will go top if they win at Brighton as leaders Liverpool are not in action until Sunday.
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City are three points behind Liverpool in third - and both have a track record of winning every game in a title battle. In 2018-19 Liverpool won all of their last nine Premier League games yet were still pipped on the final day as City won their last 11.
Arteta was convinced, however, that points would be dropped somewhere. He said: "It is very unlikely that everybody wins every game. You look back a what happened in previous seasons and it is very unlikely but you don't know."
This time last year was when it all fell apart for the Gunners, who drew three games before being smashed at City. Arteta and Co have already improved on that humiliation by stopping the champions scoring in last weekend's 0-0 Etihad stalemate.
Now they will attempt to exorcise the ghost of Brighton, whose 3-0 win at the Emirates last May effectively handed the title to City. Arteta said: "We have learned a lot from the past, especially from difficult moments and lessons that you have to take in.
"It is a different situation, we are in a different moment - and we have gone through that already. That experience serves a lot and we are trying to use it in the right way."
Arteta rested Bukayo Saka for Wednesday's 2-0 home stroll over Luton as the England winger recovered from a hamstring problem. Saka is likely to return to the starting line-up and his manager had no concerns that fitness niggles might hamper his contribution to the run-in.
Arteta said: "I am super positive - he is going to fly and be so decisive. You see how much he wants it when you talk to him and how excited he is about what is coming.
"It is normal, you have little niggles, you have kicks. He has gone through a lot of that in the last two or three years, and look at the way he is performing."
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