It’s history the Sky Blues are chasing, and they’re closer than ever after last night’s come-from-behind 2-1 defeat of Melbourne Victory.

Arnold has set his team’s sights on an unbeaten season, which is 10 positive results away.

“I’m driving the players to be the best in A-League history,” he said.

“In a 10-team competition the most returned has been 57 points and we want to beat that.

“We don’t talk about how far we are ahead. We don’t talk about coming first or the premier’s plate. It’s all about getting more than 57 points.”

The most points won in a season was by Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane Roar team in 2010-11, which finished with 65 points and just one loss in the 30-game campaign.

Arnold is instead shooting to overtake the 2012-13 Wanderers, which suffered six losses in the like-for-like 27-game season.

Under that yardstick, the Sky Blues need to win just half of their run home.

The Roar’s momentous tally still isn’t out of reach – that’s eight wins away.

On the evidence of their Australia Day win, it’s not out of the question.

With a patched-up defence, including new boy Jordi Buijs on debut and Aaron Calver at right-back, Sydney were solid and resolute.

After Milos Ninkovic created another goal – his ninth of the season – for Filip Holosko, Bernie Ibini showed their all-round forward line firepower with a stunning winner.

You might have thought that would be enough to please Arnold, but you’d be wrong.

“I’m not happy with our overall performance tonight,” he said.

“It’s good to hear (the players) say they didn’t play anywhere near their best and to still come down here and win 2-1 is a great sign.

“But we’ve got a lot to work on.

“We’ve got ten games to go and we want to be peaking at the right time and thats just before the finals series.”

-AAP