Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal are "obliged" to be playing Champions League football after they moved back into the Premier League top four with victory against Leicester.
Goals from Thomas Partey and Alexandre Lacazette at Emirates Stadium secured in-form Arsenal a fifth win in a row.
It lifted them back into fourth place, one point above Manchester United, who beat fellow top-four contenders Tottenham on Saturday.
Arsenal qualified for 19 successive Champions League campaigns from the 1998-99 season onwards and Arteta believes a club of their stature has to be in the top European club competition.
He said: "We have to be there; we should be there. Our history obliges to be there but we are not there yet and there are still a lot of games to play.
"We have an excellent group of people at the club who believe in what we do. Then you have to put performance into results. The last few months, we have been more consistent."
Partey headed in unchallenged from Gabriel Martinelli's corner after 11 minutes as the hosts capitalised on their dominant start.
The midfielder also struck the crossbar as Arsenal pressed for a second, while goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was twice called upon to deny Harvey Barnes - including a superb reaction save from a header - as the visitors threatened before half-time.
But, after Leicester defender Caglar Soyuncu was penalised for handball following a lengthy video assistant referee review, Lacazette fired in a 59th-minute penalty to put the Gunners in control.
Soyuncu received only a yellow card as Partey's still goal-bound header was cleared off the line by the alert Luke Thomas.
However, there was to be no way back for Brendan Rodgers's side, who remain 12th in the table.
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