Premier's Plate just the start for Sydney FC - Arnold

Michael Huguenin

Premier's Plate just the start for Sydney FC - Arnold image

Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold applauded his side's "wonderful achievement" to win the A-League premiership after their 3-0 win at Perth Glory but insisted the Sky Blues are far from satisfied.

The Sky Blues clinched the Premier's Plate on Saturday night when second-placed Melbourne Victory lost 1-0 away to Brisbane Roar, but Arnold claimed his players were so focused on their fixture against Perth on Sunday that he had to get them out of their seats to celebrate.

That intense focus on the job at hand and ongoing goals has Arnold convinced "there'll be no chance anyone drops off" at Sydney in the remaining three rounds of the regular season.

After setting a points record of 59 in a 10-team A-League, Arnold wants his players to target Roar's all-time record of 65 in 2010-11 when there were 11 clubs involved.

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"We've now made history with 59 points in a 10-team competition," he told reporters at nib Stadium.

[Western Sydney] Wanderers were 57 [points in 2012-13], we're now 59.

"We've got three games to go. Brisbane Roar in an 11-team competition got 65, so we'll chase that."

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Arnold added: "It's obviously a wonderful achievement by the players and the staff and the club to win the premiership with four rounds to go and for me it was about attitude today, it was about standards.

"We've set ourselves high standards all year and it was about maintaining those standards at all costs. So for me, the standards were very good. I thought our performance was excellent and we totally dominated."

Sydney have been expected to wrap up the Premier's Plate for weeks and Arnold indicated they won't stop until they are crowned champions.

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Being named premiers was just another box ticked for the Sky Blues.

"I had to get them out of their seat when [Roar defeated Victory and] they were eating dinner to congratulate each other because they only wanted to win today," Arnold said.

"They're not even thinking about anything else. It's all about winning."

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Having equalled the most number of wins (18) and clean sheets (14) in a season, the Sky Blues have plenty of records they want to set before 2016-17 is complete.

Arnold declared "we will make a statement" against Melbourne City in their next match on Saturday night.

 

Michael Huguenin