Five out of five for our boys and whilst the ‘Yeah but it’s only…’ brigade may point to an out of sorts Aston Villa side, there are a few facts and figures that is being ignored by those that don’t have an emotional investment in The Arsenal.

For example, I read a stat this morning that says we’ve faced just 11 shots so far this season. The is the joint fewest. The old xG charts are showing that night it was Arsenal on 2.94 expected goals to Aston Villa’s 0.31. At the weekend against Fulham the score was 2.52 to 0.80. Why does this matter? Because it is showing that not only have Arsenal been picking up the results, but we’ve been doing it whilst completely dominating the games and creating chances, whilst giving little away.

I also saw a journalist say last night that the closeness of the score line reflects more on the opposition, than Arsenal, because in both of the games we’ve just played we have come away with 2-1 results which really flattered the opponent. Last night even more so than at the weekend.

We’re also doing it with injuries now kicking in and with Odegaard limping off last night, the squad is already being tested; hopefully the Norwegian is ok because he had another good game last night, but as Arteta admitted afterwards, we are starting to already look a little stretched as a team with players in the same position going down. Isn’t that just classic Arsenal though? When we get injuries, they all seem to be concentrated in one place. The good news from last night though was that despite the absences of Partey and Elneny, Sambi stepped up and I thought did a fantastic job. He was strong, athletic, good on the ball and covered the centre of the midfield really well. Given that he’s not been given a sniff so far this season I thought he looked really impressive and I think Arteta should give him a shot at Old Trafford at the weekend. It will be a tougher test, we always get shafted up there somehow, but this kid has earned the chance to keep his jersey and I for one am delighted for him.

But back to last night’s game and we started off very much like we have done all season: fast and aggressive. There is a purpose about this Arsenal team and we were quicker in the passes, we won more of the duels and there was a real hunger about our play. That was evidenced after just seven minutes as we caused Villa some problems and Bukayo Saka was slammed to the box. VAR checked it but it looked a little soft for me, but it showed the intent of the team, with Gabriel Jesus forcing Martinez – the pantomime villain of the night who also made a fool of himself by diving in the second half after he had Jesus in a chokehold in his own box – into one of the early saves.

In that first half Martinez was definitely the busier of the two ‘keepers and to be fair to the moany Argentinian, he pulled off a wonder save from Martinelli at the end of the first half and a good save from a free kick in the second. But in that first half we were electric once again and created two of those types of chances where everyone in the ground turns around and says to one another: “how on earth have we missed that??”. Saka almost bundling the ball in from close range and Odegaard with a shot that deflected wide and despite the fact we scored on 31 minutes, by the time the halftime whistle went I thought most people in the concourse were saying to each other “we should have had more, that might come back to haunt us”.

Which of course it did. Aston Villa scored their goal from a corner on 74 minutes and whilst it does look like Ramsdale was held a bit, Arsenal should have had somebody in front of him to nod that away. Luiz scored from a corner against Bolton in the League Cup and whilst it wasn’t the same type of goal (the one against Bolton went looping of the ‘keeper and on to the back post), you’d have thought Arsenal might have been aware of the dangers from the player. It was sloppy and I think the Arsenal defensive unit will be looking at that back at London Colney and analysing how they can improve in that kind of situation. Thankfully though – and with a feeling of familiarity about it – the concern for conceding was even less than it was against Fulham and even less against Leicester a few weeks back, because within a minute we were ahead again, this time Saka to Martinelli and I have to tell you, I am loving this bouncebackability of the Arsenal team. Long may it continue and it was fully deserved because Villa had offered nothing up until that goal they scored. The justice was restored and despite Villa looking better in the half, the three points were once again ours and I couldn’t be happier about that.

That’s five from five, we’ve got a 100% winning record, the atmosphere around the stadium is immense and the vibe in the Arsenal online community is buzzing. All is rosy. It won’t last forever, we all know that, it will probably end this weekend, but much like last season was a mountain we had to climb after a difficult start, we’ve given ourselves a fabulous platform to have a great season. That’s all this is so far: a platform. There will be tougher games, we will come unstuck and lose some, but just think of the confidence that is brewing in this Arsenal team right now. We may be a bit battered and bruised and have picked up some injuries, but that was always going to happen, so the fact we’ve been able to respond in the way we have is really great to see. There are players really stepping up right now; Saliba looks like nothing will trouble him, Gabriel has gotten over his blip from the weekend and looked good, Tierney is looking more like himself with every game and Tomiyasu had a hand in the second goal that won it for us. In midfield I’ve already spoken about Sambi, but Xhaka has once again been showing just how good a footballer he is and his renaissance in an Arsenal shirt continues with all all getting the benefit. Up top Gabriel Jesus is a handful and on the left Martinelli has now bagged another goal to his tally. He was a handful all night, as was Saka, albeit a little quieter for most of the game I thought. But the way we approach the game yesterday was spot on, despite the fact that Villa came to kick us about a bit (I counted for dodgy fouls by McGinn in the first 20 minutes alone and he wasn’t booked until well in to the second half).

We are in good shape and we should all be very pleased with where we are at. Arteta is right that we’ve done nothing yet, but we’re in a good position and have done our job going in to a tricky September followed by a death run October.

Catch you all tomorrow.