Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has claimed that he and his teammates are much more "confident" this season as they aim for an eighth successive victory in all competitions this weekend.

The Gunners have won their last six fixtures in the Premier League, which has moved the club up to second in the table.

Last season, Arsene Wenger's men failed to maintain a title challenge and eventually had to settle for second in the standings.

Koscielny believes that the team are now well equipped to cause some trouble for their rivals.

"We've learnt a lot over the past few years," Koscielny told the club's official website. "This season we have more confidence and the team has played well, had some good results and sometimes when we did not have a good feeling in games it is harder but we won 1-0.

"We have a lot of quality players here, we have people with quality passing like Cazorla and Ozil and we are more like a group, a unit. Everyone fights for each other, no one is playing for themselves."

The Gunners face Middlesbrough at the Emirates on Saturday.