Mikel Arteta challenges his Arsenal players to pick up where they left off before World Cup

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has called his side to pick up where they left off in November and cap off a special Boxing Day with victory over West Ham.

The Gunners were the best team in the Premier League for the first half of the season and have a five point lead over Manchester City.

16th-placed West Ham visit the Emirates on Monday night with Arsenal keen to regain momentum quickly after a six-week World Cup break.

Mikel Arteta wants his players to maintain the form they had before the World Cup closed

Arteta said: ‘We need to do that on the pitch (build momentum). We have talked a lot about it.

‘We know the importance of starting strong and we play at home.

“It’s a very special day in Premier League history, it’s a very special family day to play football, it’s an amazing atmosphere on that day and we want to make the most of it.”

Asked what impressed him most during the first 14 games of the campaign, Arteta pointed to the consistency shown by his young team.

Arsenal have had a great start to the season and have a five point lead at the top of the table.

Impressive victories were achieved over rivals Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, but much tougher tests still lay ahead.

“Probably the level that we show and the consistency that we show within that level, which with the group and the age that we have is not easy,” explained Arteta.

‘We show real maturity at certain times, especially against big opponents.

‘The focus is to play better every day, continue to grow individually and collectively and continue to deserve to win games. That’s all we can hope for because football is a very complicated game.’

Arsenal boss Arteta has praised the way his team have handled big moments so far this season.

While Arsenal don’t resume their Europa League campaign until March, the FA Cup will kick off in January and Arteta knows rotation will be key, especially after several of his team took part in the World Cup in Qatar.

The Gunners are set to play six games in the next 28 days and have a similar schedule in February.

Arteta, who lost striker Gabriel Jesus to injury, added: “We’ve worked a lot on that. The second half of the season is going to be very different periods.

‘There will be periods where you have time to train and other periods where the games will come fast and you will have very congested periods.

“It will be very important how healthy the team is, how fit they are and how much rotation can help us maintain the level we want.”