It augurs well when the breaks start going your way. Aaron Ramsdale knew it, judging by his fist-pumping reaction to Patrick Bamford’s penalty miss at Elland Road; Mikel Arteta almost certainly did, if his visible ecstasy at seeing Leeds correctly denied another go in injury time is any measure. For the second time in 72 hours Arsenal rode their luck in navigating a tricky away assignment and with each banana skin avoided the sense grows that they are on to something special.
Nine wins from 10 top-flight games bear out that impression. It is Arsenal’s best start to a Premier League season, a point ahead of the Invincibles’ 2003 tally, and their strongest overall in 118 seasons of trying. Even the most jaded among their cohort can allow themselves a glint in the eye. Arteta is asked every week to set a hare running and announce his team are in a title race; already cautious in public he will never dangle that kind of red meat but if they sustain this form the question will become redundant.
