"In this game, you never stop learning," said Gardner.
"I'm enjoying it at the moment but I want to keep on enjoying it, so I have to keep improving every year and that means working hard."
"It was fantastic to beat Arsenal for the second time this season and to keep another clean sheet," he added, "but we just have to keep going, keep working hard.
"That competition I had from Henrik (Pedersen) was good for me and I think I've been doing really well, but I want to keep doing well and I want the team to keep doing well for the rest of the season."
Manager Sam Allardyce spoke of Gardner's unfortunate start to the current campaign, "The situation was difficult for Ricky in the early part of the season when he had the shock of Henrik taking his place - another left-winger converted to a left-back."
"We had so much success in keeping clean sheets that we kept Henrik at the back and put Ricky in his normal position on the front line.
"But, because of Henrik's injury, we've put him back to his 'favourite' spot and, over the last two or three months, he's got back to the form we know he can play to - and probably beyond it.
"If anything, we've been going on about his final ball, but there were two in the Arsenal game - one along the floor in the first half and the one that brought the goal - that were unstoppable."