Jurrien Timber has vowed that Arsenal will try to win their showdown with Manchester City on Sunday, after they were accused of playing for a draw at the Etihad Stadium last season.
Arsenal will travel to the reigning champions next weekend knowing that a victory will take them top of the Premier League table following their 1-0 win against rivals Tottenham on Sunday.
The Gunners have not won at City since 2015 and were criticised for their negative approach when they played out a 0-0 draw there in March.
Midfielder Rodri later said that Arsenal’s “mentality” that day fuelled City with the belief that they would beat them to the title.
Asked if Arsenal will go for the win on Sunday, Timber told beIN Sports: “We always go everywhere with the intention of [getting] three points.
“It wasn’t our intention to go for a draw there [last season]. I wasn’t there, obviously, but I know how this team thinks - and we go everywhere for a win.
“Obviously during the game, like two weeks ago against Brighton when you receive a red card, sometimes you cannot win. But, everywhere we go, we go to win.”
Before Arsenal head to City, they first travel to Italy on Thursday to face Atalanta in their Champions League opener. Atalanta won the Europa League last season and Timber expects a tough test.
“It’s going to be a big week,” said the defender, who excelled in the win against Spurs. “It’s nice to start it like this after the international break, but we have got to take it game by game. On Thursday we have the Champions League and we will be ready in Italy.”
Arsenal beat Spurs despite being without Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and a total of seven players due to injury and suspension.
Timber said the absence of so many players unified the squad and has praised their defensive work as they kept a third clean sheet in four games.
“Not only them (Odegaard and Rice), but we were missing even more players, so we knew it was going to be a tough match anyway,” said Timber.
“With any adversity, it is still a matter of winning these tough away games and we did that. It felt really good. We were really happy in the dressing room because it was a tough match and we got it over the line.
“I think we are working a lot on defending, together with the whole team, and we showed it again today with a clean sheet. If you keep a clean sheet and you create chances, you have a big chance of winning. That’s why we won.”
