Arsenal fans pump up the volume as belief grows in Arteta and players

After the ecstatic scenes of five straight wins, all that raving on the terraces, losing at Manchester United was a crashing comedown. The defensive wobbles there, the raging at officialdom and the missing of clutch chances had been an Arsenal story often told.

Brentford, by contrast, soon became a Sunday session for their supporters, mixing up old-school anthems with the latest hits as their team returned to the top of the league. Though Manchester City’s Erling Haaland-inspired menace grows week on week, Arsenal are enjoying life at the top while they can. Do Arsenal fans trust Mikel Arteta’s process? The bond the match-going contingent shares with his players feels stronger than with any Arsenal team for many a year.

Brentford was where last season began with a 2-0 defeat that demoralised, even allowing for a Covid outbreak in the camp as mitigation. It signposted a campaign where the promise of progress would be dashed by eventual disappointment. To win in such easy style at the same ground suggested more profound progress. Gabriel Jesus’s goal, Arsenal’s second, set up by Granit Xhaka, flourishing in a free role, was a beauty, the Brazilian heading home in a fashion reminiscent of Haaland himself.

Almost three years into the job, Arteta is no longer a rookie manager but the location of his ceiling is still undetermined. Having worked under Arsène Wenger and alongside Pep Guardiola, the hope was for a combination of both, though he is working at a club far less rich in resources than those mentors enjoyed. If Arsenal’s £79m summer transfer net spend looks meaty, then it is still dwarfed by the £200m-plus lashed out for Todd Boehly’s Chelsea all-stars, and by United’s attempt to graft themselves into becoming Ajax.

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