Mikel Merino did not flinch at the word.

Asked after Tuesday night at the Emirates whether Arsenal could sweep the lot this season, the Spain midfielder gave the answer his manager has carefully avoided.

“Absolutely. This is our mentality and the aim. We were so, so close last season. That proved to us that we are ready for it.”

That is the quadruple framed as a plan, not a fantasy, and it came minutes after a Champions League night that keeps backing him up.

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Nine league wins, two European clean sheets

Arsenal beat Lille 3-0 in the league phase, with Jurrien Timber, Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka all scoring inside seven second-half minutes after an hour of patient build-up. The win extended Arsenal’s unbeaten start to nine Premier League wins and a second clean sheet from two Champions League outings.

They sit level at the top of the competition table alongside Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon, according to Al Jazeera’s report of the game.

Merino’s wider pitch was unusually direct for an Arsenal squad that has largely followed its manager’s game-by-game script.

“The goal and objective is to win the Champions League, to win the Premier League, to win everything. That’s what the manager wants. That’s what the fans want.”

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Arteta keeps the brakes on

In the same stadium, on the same night, the manager was asked about the same run and chose a different vocabulary. Mikel Arteta praised the second-half display and then set the familiar limit.

“The minutes are given because they deserve them. Everyone has to earn it because we can see competition and options and that will only benefit our performances.”

When the quadruple has come up directly in the past, Arteta has waved it away. His line to ESPN earlier this year was: “Let’s go game by game and let’s try to earn the right to continue to be there until the last stage of every single competition and then we will see what happens.” He has not softened that stance since.

The split is not a quarrel. It is, more interestingly, a squad that has decided the ambition is permissible out loud, while the manager keeps calibrating expectations down.

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Last season’s near miss as fuel

Merino kept returning to the margins of last season. Arsenal came close to multiple trophies and ended with one, the piece of silverware that eluded the quadruple conversation itself. That memory, he said, is why the dressing room is not shy about naming the target now.

“It is an absolutely unbelievable run. We know that we’re making history.”

Arsenal lead the Premier League with the division’s best defensive record, having already added the Community Shield to the cabinet. The goals come late and in clusters, as Lille found out.

Next up is a Sunday Premier League assignment, with Arteta already turning the page in his post-match remarks: “Winning helps; the energy will be good when we start to prepare for the Sunday game.”

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