Can Arsenal sustain their title push or will fatigue and injuries take toll?

It augurs well when the breaks start going your way. Aaron Ramsdale knew it, judging by his fist-pumping reaction to Patrick Bamford’s penalty miss at Elland Road; Mikel Arteta almost certainly did, if his visible ecstasy at seeing Leeds correctly denied another go in injury time is any measure. For the second time in 72 hours Arsenal rode their luck in navigating a tricky away assignment and with each banana skin avoided the sense grows that they are on to something special.

Nine wins from 10 top-flight games bear out that impression. It is Arsenal’s best start to a Premier League season, a point ahead of the Invincibles’ 2003 tally, and their strongest overall in 118 seasons of trying. Even the most jaded among their cohort can allow themselves a glint in the eye. Arteta is asked every week to set a hare running and announce his team are in a title race; already cautious in public he will never dangle that kind of red meat but if they sustain this form the question will become redundant.

Can they do it? A four-point lead can be overhauled within a week but feels sufficient to allow the discussion. October always seemed a month that would set a realistic tone for Arsenal: nine games presented an absurd schedule and Arteta, always more forthcoming in this topic, highlighted that it would take delicate management. But they have won all five to date, putting down the required marker in beating Spurs and Liverpool so thrillingly, and the end of the tightrope is nearing.

The World Cup break appears an obvious point for a full assessment. Arsenal play only four more times in the Premier League before then and if they have maintained this pace by the 14-game mark there will be no flying beneath the radar. Southampton and