Arsenal’s recent unbeaten run of seven games has helped Arsene Wenger’s side after the inconsistent performances of the early season where the Gunners suffered some unexpected defeats and forward Robin van Persie has claimed that the ‘confidence is coming back’ to the north-Londoners.

The Gunners are currently fifth in the Premiership table and after their victory over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, coupled with Liverpool’s draw against Stoke City, Wenger’s side are eight points behind the leaders.

Arsenal had to work hard for the three points against the Trotters with Nicklas Bendtner’s 84th-minute goal winning it at the Emirates Stadium.

“I am really happy because if you look at the game, Bolton played a bit more defensively than normal,” Dutch ace van Persie is quoted as saying on the club’s official website. “But we stayed focused and stayed calm.

“I think the confidence is coming back now because we lost points earlier in the season that were not so clever. I think we will learn from that. This is what the boss said at half time - stay confident, stay focused and you will get your goal. This is what happened. It was a combination of fitness and confidence really.

“Before that we were a bit unlucky. They stayed behind the ball with 10 men. This is what we knew [would happen] and the only way to break them is to score. You could see after the goal, they were finished. They were tired suddenly and passes weren’t coming through.

“It’s not the most positive way of playing football. I know they had lots of injuries as well - they just brought 15 players to the Emirates. It was not a proper game of football but they had their reasons for that.”