Goalkeeper David Ospina has urged his Arsenal teammates to focus on sustaining their own performance levels as they aim to capitalise on any more off days from Manchester City in the race for second place in the Premier League.
The Gunners put the disappointment of the Champions League home defeat to Monaco behind them with a determined display to see off Everton 2-0 at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
While the European aspirations of Arsene Wenger's side look over for another season -- barring a miracle result in Monte Carlo later this month to overturn the 3-1 deficit -- a sixth win in seven league matches has pushed them back up to third in the table.
Following City's defeat at Liverpool, Arsenal are now only four points behind the defending champions as they prepare for Wednesday night's trip to relegation battlers QPR, where they are likely to be without midfielder Francis Coquelin because of a broken nose.
Ospina, again preferred ahead of Wojciech Szczesny, believes consistency from themselves is all that matters, rather than concerns over what form other sides may show.
"It is game after game. We know we are close to them [Man City] now, but we need to concentrate on ourselves and not think about them. We will keep doing our job, picking up points and then see what happens," said Ospina, who made a couple of notable important saves to deny Romelu Lukaku as goals from Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky secured a morale-boosting victory.
The Colombian continued: "We were not nervous, we were sad after the Monaco result, but in football you have to pick yourselves up quickly.
"Obviously it was a tough night on Wednesday, but you have always got to bounce back and this result was a great way to show that we had done that.
"After what happened against Monaco, the only thing that was important was to win the next game to continue increasing our confidence and keeping heading up the league. Now we are already thinking about the next one, which is QPR."
Rosicky, who came on as a late substitute to net a deflected effort in the 89th minute, is confident Arsenal can now get the Monaco debacle out of their system to regroup ahead of an FA Cup quarterfinal at Manchester United on Monday, March 9.
"It was difficult as we were affected by the loss to Monaco, but you go through disappointments throughout the season, you just have to fight through it," the Czech midfielder told Arsenal Player.
"It was very important to win and for the confidence of the whole team."
Ospina, signed from Nice during the summer, believes the competition between himself and Szczesny can only benefit the team.
"Here you are fighting in every training session. Arsenal has some great goalkeepers and that's what's important," the 26-year-old Colombian said.
"The manager takes the decision, but everyone does their own job, the competition is healthy and I hope to continue making the most of the opportunity I have been given."
Ospina added: "At the level we are at, in a team like Arsenal you always have to keep performing to stay in the team -- this helps you to work much harder and to improve every day."