As Arsenal make it five from five, the question is not how long they can keep this up but how long Steven Gerrard can keep his job.
Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow has invested a lot of trust and club money into his former Liverpool star’s project, and he is likely to get games after Saturday’s daunting home fixture against Manchester City, but the wonder is whether they will all be overtaken by events. Or, rather, defeats. Here, at a buoyant Arsenal stadium, it was as if Villa were almost powerless to stop Mikel Arteta’s effervescent side from claiming a 2-1 win. There was barely a challenge for Gabriel Martinelli’s winning goal. Gerrard’s approach, in stark contrast to Arsenal’s run, seems unsustainable.
So, while Villa look to the weekend with trepidation, Arsenal look to it with hope. They have positive momentum, confidence and an edge, all of which form the ideal mentality to be going to Manchester United in search of the sort of victory that would really serve as a statement.
This victory, after all, didn’t exactly remove the one remaining caveat from Arsenal’s perfect start. They still haven't played a top-half side. Villa instead look set to be a lot worse than just bottom half under Gerrard. Rather than just helping to aid Arsenal’s confidence, though, the visitors instead sharpened the north Londoners’ edge. Arsenal again showed they do not buckle in the face of setbacks in such games.
Because, in previous matches with this young squad – and in many of Arsene Wenger’s latter seasons – there would have been a propensity to panic once the inferior side had equalised out of nowhere.
It should have been all the more galling for Arsenal given how superior they’d been, to the point they almost seemed too comfortable with a 1-0 lead that could and should have been 5-0.
Earlier iterations of Arsenal might have struggled with that abrupt change, all the questions and doubts pouring in. This team just immediately strode forward and assuredly set it right.
Less than three minutes separated Douglas Luiz’s equaliser and Martinelli’s winner.
There was so much more between the teams, and not just in terms of resources and quality. The biggest gap was in the very idea of football.
The most worrying thing for Gerrard was how difficult it was to even define Villa’s approach. If you were to describe what they were trying to do, the only discernible pattern to their game was aggressively getting into Arsenal – and yet what did the goal come from?
All of Gabriel Martinelli, Granit Xhaka and Jesus had yards of space around them for every step of it. So much for the aggression.
Even before that, Tyrone Mings had been so dismissively bundled to the ground by Jesus in one surge into the box. Villa were actually quite supine. Virtually every Arsenal attack before the goal ended in a goalmouth scramble, Emi Martinez or Mings forced into desperate blocks.
The goalkeeper couldn’t keep it up indefinitely, though. Martinez actually did his part by parrying Xhaka’s effort after Martinelli had slipped him through, but he was then helpless as Jesus just slotted it back into the net behind him with barely a challenge.
Villa could barely muster an attack.
That did at least raise two questions for a surprisingly suspenseful second half.
The first was how Arsenal weren’t further ahead, given how dominant they’d been. The second was how they managed to concede.
Again, it wasn’t exactly from any kind of constructed play, adding further credence to the growing argument Gerrard doesn’t exactly have a football ideology. It was instead from the straightest set-piece you could have. Douglas Luiz just curled it in from a corner, with what was his first touch.
Arsenal did complain that there had been much more contact in the move. The players couldn’t believe that the goal had not been ruled out in a VAR check, given how Aaron Ramsdale appeared to be impeded by Boubacar Kamara.
The sense of injustice, nevertheless, may have given them the edge they needed. After a more ponderous second half, when it looked for long stretches like Arsenal felt the game was won, they immediately picked up and made sure of that.
Bukayo Saka crossed, Martinelli finished, capping a fine individual display.
Martinez was this time much less of an obstacle than for the first goal, the Brazilian’s shot going through his hand. It was arguably just as inevitable as an Arsenal win from how Villa were playing.
Again, for all the superficial aggression of Gerrard’s side, they left so much space free in the box.
It was just too easy. Gerrard’s face was a picture.
The image of the table meanwhile looks perfect for Arsenal. They go to Old Trafford in the best possible mood. Villa and Gerrard, meanwhile, might have to start facing up to the worst.
