The sights walking around a balmy Birmingham this morning - beer gardens full, shorts (prematurely) summoned from the depths of drawers for the first time in months - gave this fixture the aesthetic backdrop of an early-season August encounter.
But this is the business end, next week’s international break the last staging post before the run-in gets underway in earnest, and after the midweek defeat to Liverpool that ended a streak of five straight wins, it was crucial that Arsenal hit back immediately.
They did just that, thanks to, predictably, Bukayo Saka, whose goal earned a 1-0 win over Aston Villa that opens up a four-point cushion over Manchester United and ensures the Gunners will spend the next fortnight in a Champions League position.
The sunny conditions were accompanied by a howling wind that probably played some part in Arsenal’s dominance of the first-half as the hosts struggled to make use of Ollie Watkins’ usual hard-running outlet and chased shadows as Mikel Arteta’s side fizzed and floated around Villa Park.
They were put under significantly more pressure after the break, Watkins going closest to a leveller as his shot deflected onto the near post, but the way they are playing, it looks like taking plenty to blow Arsenal off course.
The tight turnaround from Wednesday night to Saturday lunchtime that Mikel Arteta has been so riled by was not enough, nor the absences of Aaron Ramsdale and Gabriel Martinelli that forced the Spaniard into changing his lineup for the first time in five matches.
A lack of depth may yet prove Arsenal’s undoing, but in Emile Smith Rowe, Arteta had a ready-made replacement for Martinelli, whose display in the opening 45 minutes in particular will no doubt have the Gunners boss again pondering how he might fit the pair of them into the same team.
The 21-year-old was terrific on his return to the starting XI, every touch a positive one as he showed why Gareth Southgate has kept him in his England squad ahead of the likes of Jadon Sancho despite a relative recent lack of playing time.
On the opposite flank Saka was in full flow again, giving a 36-year Ashley Young a torrid time of it. His goal, a decent first-time strike that travelled through the legs, hidden from the view of Emiliano Martinez until it was too late to react, took his personal tally for the season into double figures.
He had to put up with some rough treatment, too, though referee Andrew Madley was right to ignore Arsenal players’ ire and show Tyrone Mings only a yellow card when his follow-through awkwardly caught his England teammate shortly after his opener.
The 20-year-old had hearts in mouths in the away end as he beat the turf in pain and then hobbled around gingerly, and you can understand why. Such is the level at which he is now operating on a consistent basis that any absence of note could well change the entire complexion of this top four race.
Fortunately, the damage was not lasting, Saka fine to carry on even after Young had made sure with another, more cynical late hit minutes later. Saka was greeted with jeers from the rest of Villa Park from thereon in, disproving the popular theory that, even among rival fans he is impossible to dislike.
He eventually made way for Nicolas Pepe with 20 minutes to go and made sure Madley knew of his discontent as he did so.
“I wasn’t complaining, but I wanted to let him know that is my game,” Saka told BBC Sport afterwards. “I’m going to run at players; sometimes I need a bit more protection when the opposition is trying to kick me.
“My ankle is a bit bloody, but I’ll be going again in the next game. It’s part of my game, so I’ll be doing it again next time.”
It was left to Kieran Tierney, Ben White and Bernd Leno - on his first league outing since August - to lead a defiant late resistance.
But it is both the style and steel of Saka that so typifies this Arsenal team right now, energy, ability and character in almost equal measure taking them into a position - with just ten games to go - that they could not have dreamed of heading into the autumn, as they now emerge into the spring.
