Czech playmaker Tomas Rosicky is convinced Arsenal can win trophies again - and would not stay on at the club otherwise.
Rosicky is out of contract at the end of the season, however manager Arsene Wenger revealed a deal is all but done to extend the 33-year-old's stay at the Emirates Stadium.
The veteran midfielder - who scored a well-crafted goal in the 4-1 win over Sunderland when he stepped into the side for injured Mesut Ozil - has seen his Arsenal career hampered by a run of injuries since arriving in 2006 from Borussia Dortmund, where he had been nicknamed "The Little Mozart" for his creative style.
Rosicky, though, has no doubts he in the right place to help Arsenal finally end their long trophy drought.
"I always believed in it here at Arsenal and still do. I knew this club was the right place for me and I want to be here for as long as I can," Rosicky said.
"It is obviously very difficult to predict how long I can go on for, (but) I feel very good. I don't feel any different than in the past, I don't feel any change in myself.
"All I can say is that I still have a big passion to achieve things and that is really important.
"You must have that force, that drive to go on and achieve something and I definitely still have that.
"I was nearly out of the game because of injury, so I have a different approach now because I know it could end at any point. I just want to be successful with Arsenal."
Rosicky - who did not feature for the Gunners during the entire 2008-09 season because of a hamstring tendon injury - added: "I won three titles in the Czech Republic before I left (Sparta Prague), I won the Bundesliga with Dortmund and I still believe I can do it here.
"I wouldn't stay here if I didn't believe.
"The idea of winning the (Premier) League and the Champions League really drives me forward, I love it."
Arsenal responded to their midweek European disappointment of losing 2-0 at home to Bayern Munich with the required response as they blitzed the Black Cats, who contest the Capital One Cup final against Manchester City next weekend.
The Gunners remain just a point behind leaders Chelsea, and two clear of Manchester City, who do hold a match in hand.
Boss Wenger feels this season's open championship race could well go down to the wire.
"It looks like the last game could be decisive. Nobody knows. What is for sure, the most consistent team from now on will do it," Wenger said on Arsenal Player.
"Everybody has big games, everybody has difficult games, the Premier League is difficult for everybody so let's just focus on our performances.
"We have just come off of a little bit of a difficult run because we lost at Liverpool, we played a draw against Man United and we are still only one point behind Chelsea so overall that is a great encouragement.
"Let's go for the 11 games with a real desire to do well in every single game - then you have a good chance."
Ozil is expected to shake off his dead leg for the trip to Stoke next weekend.
Wales manager Chris Coleman has revealed midfielder Aaron Ramsey is targetting a possible return from the thigh injury which kept him out since Boxing Day, and so unavailable to join up for international duty, for the second leg of Arsenal's Champions League tie in Munich on March 11.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article