Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team had played some of their best football of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Fulham and demanded that they take the positive feelings into the return leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday.

Arsenal picked a fine time to recover their attacking flow, Viktor Gyökeres scoring either side of a Bukayo Saka goal to give them an unassailable half-time lead. The result took them six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, albeit their rivals have two games in hand – the first of which is at Everton on Monday night.

Arteta said he would watch that match as he finalised his preparations for Atlético’s visit to the Emirates Stadium; the first leg in Madrid last Wednesday finished 1-1. But he was less interested in what his team’s cruise against Fulham said to City and more about what it could do for his own players’ belief as they chase glory at home and in Europe.

“It says to us and toward our dressing room that we keep the dream alive,” Arteta said. “That what these guys have done, not now, but throughout the season to win that many games is remarkable. Because I think it’s going to help on Tuesday. What we want now is to use that momentum, energy and belief towards Tuesday.

“This was a critical game. We know the importance of the win and the manner that we’ve done it and the goal difference in the Premier League and because this game was going to carry a lot of energy towards the next game, which is one of the biggest in the history of this stadium. We’re going to try to make it happen.”

Arteta was asked whether the first-half performance against Fulham was Arsenal’s best of the season. “It certainly was one of the best,” he said. “We talked about hunger, about having the ability to focus and be so determined on what we had to do.”

Arteta made five changes to the lineup he sent out against Atlético in the first leg, bringing in Saka for his first start since 22 March. He was excellent. As were the other four who came back in – Riccardo Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberechi Eze and Leandro Trossard. It was Calafiori’s first football since 7 April.

“We had some fresh legs from a few players,” Arteta said. “You could notice that big time because the individual performance increased and then the team flowed in a different way. There was a certain connection in the team and I had a feeling that it was going to provoke that [a good performance]. Those connections happened because we had some freshness, as well.”

The Fulham manager, Marco Silva, reported that a sickness bug had affected his squad during their preparations. But he refused to use that as an excuse for a flat performance and a result that dented the club’s ambition of qualifying for Europe. “I expected more from us but the goal [of Europe] is still there.”