Mikel Arteta has attempted to pour cold water on talk of Arsenal challenging for the Premier League title this season after his side's statement win over Tottenham.
The Gunners maintained their flying form as they swarmed their poor rivals and ran out 3-1 winners in a pulsating north London derby at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal showed their togetherness and spirit in a stunning north London derby win
Arteta was delighted with his team's performance against Spurs
The victory means Arsenal will keep their seat at the top of the table for another week, even if second place Man City beat Manchester United in the Manchester derby on Sunday.
It was a huge game for Arteta's young side, and one that shows they can cope with the pressures of playing against the league's top clubs and their biggest rivals.
That has been the constant question hanging over this Gunners team, especially after they fell to a 3-1 defeat to United in their first real test of the campaign a few weeks ago.
But they followed that up by bouncing back in a 3-0 win over Brentford and now what was one of the most one-sided north London derbies in recent times.
Arteta was delighted with his team's performance and mental resilience, especially after Harry Kane's penalty made it 1-1, only for goals from Gabriel Jesus and Granit Xhaka to seal a big win following Thomas Partey's wonderstike opener.
But he didn't go so far as to back his side for a title tilt, insisting they still have plenty to improve before that declaration comes.
It was a statement victory from Arsenal, but Arteta is not getting carried away
Asked how close Arsenal are to being title contenders again, Arteta told talkSPORT: "I don't know and I cannot answer that question.
"We are now at the top of the table and we're really happy to be there, we want to continue to be there and just focus.
"It's a really hungry and humble team and we know we still have so many things to improve to get to a level that is required to actually do something very impressive in this league."
Jesus was named talkSPORT's Man of the Match after another scintillating individual display from the Brazilian, who gave his national team manager some food for thought after being dropped from their recent squad.
And while Arteta hailed the summer signing's impact, he made it clear it was the complete team performance that won the game against Spurs.
"I wouldn't like to highlight any individual," said the Spaniard.
Jesus was the star performer for Arsenal again, but it was a true team performance from the Gunners
"Obviously Gabi [Jesus] brought something different to the club, to the team, certain qualities and experiences that he's been through that are so helpful and you can see that., but for me the powerful thing is how we connect with each other.
"I'm very happy, especially with the manner and the way we connected straight away with the game, with our crowd and the energy we generated, it was phenomenal.
"We demanded to play in a certain way, and that's obviously different to what they [Tottenham], but I think there were two really good sides out there trying to do their own thing, and we are really happy we won the game."
talkSPORT also caught up with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after full-time, and he said Saturday's triumph topped last season's home victory over Spurs, which was also a 3-1 win thanks to goals from Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka.
"It's special," said the Gunners No.1. "It tops last year's home game, definitely.
Ramsdale insists Arsenal must return to the Premier League top four this season
"It's that winning mentality, never say die attitude that we've got in the squad at the minute, that fire burning inside that no matter if they score, we know we've got the quality to hurt them.
"The signings we brought in are winners, even William Saliba coming in, a France international, U21 player of the year, so we have it in the group."
Like his boss, Ramsdale also said Arsenal aren't thinking about the title, and said their main focus is to avoid more top-four heartbreak after being pipped to the post by Spurs late on last season.
Asked if a top-four spot is the minimum expectation for this Arsenal team this term, Ramsdale replied: "Yeah it has to be.
"That was the minimum for us at the start of the season, it's the same now and it will be the same after 20 and 30 games.
"What happened to us at the end of last season, we don't want to go through that again."
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