The King Power Stadium was rapidly emptying by the time Arsenal’s players strode over towards their fans in the far corner of the ground. One by one they took their curtain call. Gabriel, the scorer of the first goal, hurled his shirt gleefully into the crowd. Aaron Ramsdale, whose first-half save from James Maddison’s free-kick had to be seen to be believed, was given the biggest cheer of all.
And the mind drifted back to a press conference Mikel Arteta gave in late August, after Arsenal had lost their first three games of the season in calamitous circumstances. In it, he railed at the negativity surrounding the club, insisting that certain people were out to “bury us”. At the time it felt like a doomed and transparent attempt to instil some sort of siege mentality at a club that was rapidly drifting into irrelevance. But you know, maybe he was on to something. Right now, Arsenal feels like a happier and more cohesive club than it has been for a long time.
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