Petr Cech has insisted that he is playing as well as ever and put a lack of clean sheets down to Arsenal simply being "unlucky".

The 34-year-old has kept just six shutouts in 20 games so far this season, compared to a league-high record of 16 last time out in his maiden campaign in North London.

Arsenal have conceded at least once in nine of their last 11 outings and have an inferior defensive record to Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at the top, but Cech is not concerned about his personal form and believes that the lack of clean sheets is easily explained.

"So far it's a kind of a different campaign because I think I have been doing well but if you take clean sheets, we had a run of games where we conceded at least one goal," he is quoted as saying by the London Evening Standard. "The most important thing is obviously that the team wins but it is good sometimes to have a clean sheet and that solid base at the back.

"We have conceded a number of penalties in games where the penalty was the only goal [we conceded], so sometimes you have these runs which are a bit unlucky against you but you would like to do something extra and find one extra save. Overall it is a season in which I am playing at the level I need to be at.

"You want to improve every game and keep the standard up the whole time - you don't want to have a period where you are not doing so well or you are not where you should be, which hasn't happened yet so hopefully I can keep like that."

Arsenal have kept six clean sheets in the Premier League this season in all - fewer than Chelsea's 11 and next-best Tottenham's eight.