Arsenal's fine midfield can keep the Gunners atop the Premier League

You don’t see many goals like that in the Premier League. Intricate, close-controlled touches surrounded by yellow and green shirted defenders, completely flummoxed by the precision, speed and swagger of a move executed so expertly description doesn’t do it justice. You have to see it. I’ve re-watched it about thirty times. And once you have seen it, you have to ask: if they tried a hundred times to replicate that goal, would they nail it even once?

That’s right, it’s Jack Wilshere’s opener against Norwich City at the Emirates on Saturday. Wilshere-Gibbs-Carzola-Wilshere-Carzola-Giroud-Wilshere-Giroud-Wilshere-Goal. A goal Arsene Wenger described as potentially the best goal an Arsenal team of his has ever produced. The neg-storm rumbling and crackling over the Holloway Road after the Aston Villa loss on the opening day seems a lifetime ago now, and Arsenal look like a team that are going to take some catching at the pinnacle of the Prem.

It would be easy to go along with the view that this is all down to their blockbuster signing, marquee man Mesut Ozil, and whilst he has undoubtedly brought pedigree to a midfield lacking in guile and confidence, another midfield signing has been just as vital to their momentum. The recapture of Matieu Flamini looked like a utility buy for the roster, but he has cemented his place as Arsenal’s holding midfielder, allowing four men to float and dart in front of him. With Flamini and Giroud as either pole, there is a world of beauty, imagination and inspiration between them in Arsenal’s planet Offensive.

Ramsey part of Planet Offensive

Right now those four are Wilshere, Ramsey, Carzola and Ozil. In waiting are Rosicky, Gnabry and, fighting for fitness, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain. Looking at teams with comparative depth and quality in their attacking midfields – Manchester City, Chelsea, Spurs – you would be hard pressed to say that Arsenal have the best talent but, on the form they’ve built in the opening quarter of the season, they certainly have the best blend. They are frightening in the final third right now, brimming with the same confidence-bordering-on-arrogance that took their ‘Invincibles’ to the title ten years ago. The same cannot be said for the mentioned three clubs and certainly not for Manchester United.

If – as has happened so far – the ‘top six’ continue to drop points against the lesser fancied teams, the key to this year’s title could be how they perform against each other. Just as easily however, it could be down to who takes enough points off the rest to make the big head to heads insignificant. The champions could be crowned without beating any of their rivals, and currently Arsenal are certainly best placed to take the title that way. Their fans won’t give a space monkey which way they take it if they can secure their first title in a decade, and if they keep scoring goals like they did on Saturday, neither will many others.