Ainsley Maitland-Niles says Arsenal's players feel they're getting stronger defensively.

After their 1-0 Europa League win at Napoli, Arsenal have now kept six clean sheets in their last seven games .

Maitland-Niles claims they are cutting out individual mistakes to increase their defensive solidity.

“We're learning different methods in Europe because sometimes we need to be more like the foreign teams, stick with it for 90 minutes and just grind out results," he said. “And it's going well at the moment.

"You can score as many goals as you want but if you don't defend properly then the game could go either way, as we saw on Wednesday night in the Champions League [as Tottenham knocked out Manchester City on away goals].

"I think we're gelling together very well. The manager is working with a back four, a back five, so we all know positionally what to do, not to dive in in the box and not to give silly fouls away around the box as well."

Maitland-Niles also highlighted the man-management of Unai Emery.

“The manager has given us a lot of confidence," he said. “He's backing us and he believes in us so much.

“That's what you need: the manager to pat you on the back when you don't do well. And when you do well, to pat you on the back even harder and say 'look, this is fantastic'.

"And he's done that throughout the whole season for me."