Arsenal's top four race advantage
It seems that every week between now and the end of the season we're going to be talking about the top four race in one way or another.
On Saturday it took another unexpected twist as Arsenal were ultimately unable to gain ground over Tottenham due to their shock away win over Manchester City.
But while many Gooners around the club would have been cursing their luck at the scarcely believable way in which Spurs claimed points at the Etihad, what's worth remembering is a secret weapon this Arsenal side seem to have over their rivals.
While other teams have been swaying more violently than a plastic bag caught in the path of Storm Eunice, the Gunners' form since December has more or less stayed stable.
It's not as if there's not been obstacles to overcome in that time. The Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang situation could have torn many a team apart, while disciplinary indiscretions could have been enough to throw many other sides of course.
But what separates this Arsenal group aside from top four rivals such as Manchester United and Tottenham is the intangible, but obvious unity that is currently in the group.
In the game this was typified by Gabriel's altercation with Pontus Jansson after the Swedish defender wiped out Thomas Partey in an aerial challenge from a free kick, but the point was hammered home even succinctly after the game.
Alexandre Lacazette took to Twitter to quite simply say "Nice kick about with the boys" before tagging Arsenal's official account and adding a kissing emoji for good measure.
The post was a direct call back to Ivan Toney's tweet after the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season, in which the Bees came away 2-0 winners, prompting almost hysterical criticism of the Gunners from the national media en masse.
The Arsenal players stuck together throughout though, and comments on Lacazette's post from Gabriel, Emile Smith Rowe and Aaron Ramsdale only served to hammer home this sense of unity around the Emirates.
Mikel Arteta has previously said the aftermath of that tricky start to the season was his best moment throughout his entire playing or managerial career, and reaffirmed those sentiment's after Saturday's victory.
"That nobody was blaming eachother, that everyone wanted to contribute, nobody wanted hide and wanted to be part of what we're doing," said the Spaniard when asked to explain what he learned about his squad back in August. "They showed that attitude to transmit it to everyone at the club."
It may be easy to dismiss as a soft factor, but as Arsenal look to qualify for Champions League football for the first time in half a decade, the fact that their group is arguably more united than at any time during that period will play an immeasurable part in any success they achieve.
Arsenal's right side bias
It also became a running joke last season how lopsided the Arsenal attack was at points.
The tactic of give it to Kieran Tierney and hope almost became the Gunners reflex as a lack of creativity anywhere in the team made them a painfully predictable opponent to defend against.
Fast forward now to the back end of this campaign, and it could quite possibly be argued that the left-sided bias has now flipped over to the opposite flank.
Some days you need a wrecking ball to break down an opposition defence and others you need a chisel. With Bukayo Saka out wide and Martin Odegaard in the half space, with Cedric - who again impressed while deputising for Takehiro Tomiyasu - playing his part, Arsenal had the latter against Brentford.
Time and again they targeted the Bee's left hand side giving poor Rico Henry an afternoon to forget, with Odegaard in particular being relentless in his ability to find spaces in the tightly packed penalty box.
On the day it was no surprise that the player with the most expected threat from passing was the Norwegian, while Saka had the most xT received. Cedric meanwhile provided the most xG in the build up completing the Arsenal transformation (as per @oh_that_crab ).
In recent weeks Mikel Arteta has subtly got his team operating in the 4-3-3 set up he admitted it would be his dream to play in an interview all the way back in December 2020.
It's taken some time to get there, but the increased variety to the Gunners attack is what has put them on the right track for a Champions League spot, and the Spaniard deserves plenty of credit for that.
Arteta hints at new role for Smith Rowe
While Arsenal attacked most from the right, it was over on the left where their breakthrough finally came.
Emile Smith Rowe has had to patiently bide his time in recent months after losing his starting spot in the Arsenal team to the in form Gabriel Martinelli.
It's not as if that decision can be questioned too severely. Martinelli has been excellent since coming back in to the team and was probably hard done by to be sent off by Michael Oliver last time out against Wolves.
But given his chance from the off, Smith Rowe more than took it, providing a sublime low finish past David Raya, who up until that point had looked unbeatable.
It's yet another strike for the England international who is now the first Arsenal academy product to reach double figures in a season since Cesc Fabregas.
"Wow!" Smith Rowe said when told about that achievement. "That's really special to hear that. Yeah, that means a lot, you know? It's always been a dream to play for Arsenal so to hear that, it means a lot.
"I'm buzzing," he went on to add. "The goals are really starting to come now but the most important thing was the three points today."
Having been given the freedom to find his feet at senior level, the 21-year-old is now starting to bring the goal threat he had throughout the Hale End set up on to the biggest stage.
At full time the earworm that is the "Saka and Emile Smith Rowe" chant was booming around the Emirates as the stadium DJ blasted out Status Quo's Rockin' all over the world , and speaking after the game Mikel Arteta admitted it's a sound he loves hearing.
"I understand that they love that song and everybody loves that song because they’ve been raised in our system, the Spaniard said.
"I’m really happy that we have players who come and take responsibility and manage to win games for us which is really impressive at that age."
The indication here from Arteta is that he views the Hale End pair as too important to drop, but with Martinelli coming back, the question has to be, who misses out?
Martin Odegaard is arguably the best player at the club right now, so cannot be dropped, so if you want to start the trio of Martinelli, Saka and Smith Rowe, then you're having to look for some creative solutions.
Playing the England international as a 'false nine' is something that Arteta has tried before in last season's Europa League semi-final against Villarreal, and while it didn't work that night, Smith Rowe's increased confidence in front of goal, link up ability and positional awareness perhaps mean it's something that could be revisited.
Alexandre Lacazette is currently the club captain and played a pivotal role in wining the ball back in the build up to Saka's second, so dropping him is not exactly a controversy-free decision, but whatever Arteta does on Thursday night vs Wolves, one of his most important attacking players is going to end up disappointed.
Captaincy controversy
Despite the fact that Arsenal had just claimed a crucial victory in the race for this season's top four, the major talking point doing the round on social media at the full time whistle, was something that felt pretty innocuous at the stadium in real time.
As Alexandre Lacazette was coming off to be replaced by Eddie Nketiah the Frenchman handed the captain's armband to his fellow forward who sprinted on to the pitch to hand it to Granit Xhaka, only to be told hold on to it after all.
Cue the outrage.
Sky Sports pundit Michael Dawson got the ball rolling by criticising Xhaka's unwillingness to take the armband, before broadcasters of the game world wide began to distribute the footage across social media platforms prompting general outrage.
Eventually the high priest of hysteria himself Piers Morgan chimed in describing the chain of events as "Arsenal’s biggest problem" since Patrick Vieira had left the club.
Now before Morgan goes as red as the Arsenal shirts with anger let's all take a breath to analyse what actually happened.
The ball went out for a throw in on the Gunners' left touchline where Kieran Tierney went over to prepare to take it. The stoppage in play then prompted Mikel Arteta to make his second change of the day which was to have Nketiah replace Lacazette.
As the Frenchman trudged off the pitch, he began shouting towards Tierney to try and get him to come and take the armband, but amid the standing ovation Lacazette was receiving from the Emirates for his display, the Scottish international could not hear him.
As a result Lacazette gave the armband to Nketiah to give to Tierney, but with the play about to resume, the England under-21 forward was told to go and stand in the centre forward position by Arteta.
Not knowing what to do with the armband Nketiah then tried to give it to Xhaka, but the Swiss international could see that play was about to resume and instructed his young teammate to hold on to it until the next stoppage in play. This was presumably because he did not want to be seen taking over the captaincy after Lacazette's departure given his own troubled history with the role.
Play resumed and Nketiah began running around with the armband on until the next stoppage in play - an Arsenal throw in the attacking right hand side of the pitch - upon which he ran back to Tierney who donned the attire signifying his role as skipper for the remainder of the day.
After the game Arteta confirmed that it was Tierney who was next in line to skipper the side, which is perhaps an intriguing insight into who will be adopting the role on a permanent basis next season when Lacazette departs the club.
Xhaka's commitment or leadership skills do not need to questioned, nor is this an unofficial confirmation of his impending move to Roma. It is simply a moment of confusion that got blown way, way out of hand.
In the week where Storm Eunice battered the UK, this veritable hurricane in a teacup was blown almost laughably out proportion.
