| Here’s looking at you, Arsenal "It’s about damn time,” LeBron James told the courtside reporter after his first NBA title. Arsenal followers could be echoing that as the Premier League leaders (yes, you read that right) ready for a Sunday visit to Chelsea. After finishing fifth last season, eighth in the two terms prior to that, fifth again in 2018-19 and sixth in 2017-18, the possibility of heading to Christmas as leaders is more realistic than ever. “We are ready to go a different level, and I am convinced of that,” Mikel Arteta had said earlier this year. The Arsenal manager has got his team to walk his talk with 10 wins in 12 Premier League games, including an imperious performance against Nottingham Forest.  All things bright and beautiful at Arsenal now Source: Premier League It is true that Forest cannot be the benchmark for excellence; they lost big to Leicester City and Manchester City. But it is equally true that Arsenal haven’t been this good at set-pieces (defending and scoring); pressing in a pack that usually includes Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka; shooting on goal and being quicker off the blocks in most games in some time. That’s a long-winded way of saying they haven’t enjoyed themselves as much in the last years of Arsene Wenger and the first of Arteta. Trust in process Equally laudable is the trust they reposed in the process and the personnel, or at least some of them. Step forward Granit Xhaka. Time was when, like Joelinton at Newcastle, fans (okay, most) loved to hate him. Xhaka almost left in 2019 and again in 2021 but Arteta got him to change his mind. He stayed, became a player who would help in the press, help move the ball forward and help when Arsenal don’t have the ball. Had he gone, like Thierry Henry at Juventus, in 2019, I wonder how many would have missed the tempestuous Swiss. Or Arteta. Remember the clamour to replace him when they had zero goals and as many points after three games last term? If you don’t, check out the early episodes of ‘All Or Nothing: Arsenal.’ But the club that fluffed lines with Gunnersaurus in 2020, culled scouts when the world was ravaged by Covid-19, kept faith in the manager who was a former captain. It feels kind of right when a club can hire someone who was part of it. Especially when that works. Think Barcelona in the era that preceded their fall in Europe. In Arteta and Edu Arsenal have former stars as manager and technical director. So, when Arteta talks of discipline, and removes Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, or of passion and commitment, it lands better. From a team hesitant to play forward passes in Arteta’s first season, Arsenal had, as per FBref.com, four in the top-10 shot-takers in the league going into the 1-0 win against Leeds United. From 1.59 goals per match in March, they have 2.5 goals per league game and many of them have come from players 21 or younger. As they said in another context, in the Netflix series “From Scratch”, it is ugly till it isn’t (it is in the episode where Amy tells her Italian boyfriend Lino that if she has to understand football, she would rather do it with him). Settled line-up Arsenal have a settled line-up where Jesus can be goalless for seven games and they still win. Because of his assists (two against Forest) and shots on goal, Jesus shows there's more to a forward’s life than goals. Going into the weekend’s games, three of Europe’s top five leagues are don’t have teams you would expect in pole position. Unlike Forest, Union Berlin haven’t had problems adjusting to a string of newcomers and are on top in Bundesliga and Napoli (more on them in another section) are in front in Serie A. This could go south—there’s a reason why anxiety and Arsenal fans are in lockstep. Arsenal’s lack of squad depth has shown up and Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko, William Saliba, Ben White won't always be available. But used to gloom, Arsenal fans deserve every bit of this patch of sunshine. | 
