Let us begin with the caveat that now seems compulsory usage — almost nobody thinks, nor expects, that Arsenal will win the Premier League title this season.
They have made a sensational start, among the best in Premier League history to this point, and sit deservedly atop the table. But no, if anyone asks, they cannot and will not stay there.
It is a given that at some point Manchester City will come swooping past, like a Tour de France sprinter, tucked in behind his lead-out man before charging clear up the Champs-Elysees, presumably powered by the thighs, and goals, of Erling Haaland.
Order will be restored and Arsenal, to repeat, will not win the Premier League. Except, what if they do?
At some point the unthinkable must start to be considered more than a dismissed possibility — and now seems as good a time as any.
After nine games, the Gunners are a point clear of the defending champions and should they win their 10th, against Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday, they will extend that gap to four, at least until Pep Guardiola’s men face Liverpool soon after.
By any objective measure, regardless of what may or may not happen down the track, Arsenal, right now, are title contenders. If not, it is difficult to explain what they are doing messing about at the top of the division a quarter of the way through the campaign.
The statement wins over top-class opposition that proved elusive in the past have arrived in recent weeks, Tottenham and Liverpool both beaten at the Emirates.
They have a new centre-forward, in Gabriel Jesus, to score the goals that effectively cost them fourth place last term. One who, like former City team-mate Oleksandr Zinchenko, has added a winning drive, and an essentially new centre-half, in William Saliba, who looks frighteningly good.
Even so, the best case made for the Gunners lasting the course so far seems to be some unquantifiable weirdness that might arise out of a unique season split in two. Quite what that means, and quite why it would benefit Arsenal ahead of say, City, remains unclear, particularly since Haaland — the player whose presence has their crowning laced with such apparent inevitability — will not go to Qatar.
Arsenal are refusing, publicly, to think even that far ahead, let alone to thoughts of a title run-in in May. Having given up trying to tease a confession of belief out of anyone associated with the club, one journalist asked Gunners captain Martin Odegaard following last night’s win over Bodo/Glimt whether simply staying top until the season breaks for the World Cup a month from now had become a short-term aim. His response was a familiar flat bat of not getting carried away and taking things one game at a time.
It is amusing that Arsenal fans seem content with the narrative that they are keeping City’s seat warm.
In an era when fans consistently rage about perceived media biases against their clubs and a lack of credit dolled, it is amusing that on this occasion, Arsenal fans seem fairly content with the prevailing narrative that Arteta’s men are keeping City’s seat warm.
Certainly, it has taken a bit of the pressure off, the Emirates noisier than ever and yet, for the most part, nothing like as tense or nervous as it has been. Arteta’s young side, having seized up under the scrutiny of last season’s Champions League push, seem freed up by the idea that second is the best they can possibly aim for.
That will, in all likelihood, still prove to be the case: the bookmakers still have City as long odds-on favourites to retain their crown and Arsenal, the league leaders, as big as eight-to-one.
At this moment, however, Arsenal are by very definition contenders — and it would be silly to pretend otherwise.
