It might be time to start taking Arsenal and Mikel Arteta seriously after perfect Premier League start - The Warm-Up

THURSDAY'S BIG STORIES The Greatest Team? Ad No club invites scepticism like Arsenal. They always play nice football, they always score beautiful goals, and they always feel suspicious. Slightly hollow.

As if at any moment Gabriel Martinelli might fall slowly forward and turn out to be just a stage prop, a painting of a brilliant footballer on a wooden frame. A potemkin team of potemkin players. A fraud made from frauds.

Premier LeagueGuardiola hails Haaland's 'contagious mentality' after stunning start10 HOURS AGO Judging by the way they went into last night's game, Aston Villa are subscribers to the theory. You check a car's tires by giving them a kick, and you check an Arsenal team's spirit — their up-for-it-ness — in much the same way. Into the shins.

Into the back. Leave a bit. Leave a bit more.

Morally shady, of course, but it has been shown to work. How Villa made it out of the first half with just one yellow card is a mystery, though Arsenal were good enough, and collected enough, for it all to look rather futile. As if Steven Gerrard had decided that his team had better kick their way out of the incipient crisis; as if Gerrard couldn't come up with any better ideas.

How Arsenal made it out of the first half with just one goal: another mystery. Or, perhaps, evidence of fraudulence. Then it happened.

Douglas Luiz swung a corner into the six-yard box, every defender melted into nothingness, and Aaron Ramsdale got stuck behind a Villa player. He flailed, he complained; the referee shrugged; the nation giggled. But then, moments later, it unhappened.