Arteta enjoying winning feeling

MIKEL ARTETA is probably as well placed as anyone to offer perspective on an Arsenal season that resembled a car crash during the opening weeks before being transformed into what can now justifiably be described as a title challenge.

Drafted in unexpectedly from Everton on transfer deadline day in the wake of the chastening 8-2 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford, the midfielder made his debut in the home win over Swansea, the result that finally got the club’s campaign underway.

After an initial stutter. Wenger’s side has progressed in an increasingly serene fashion with Saturday’s routine demolition of Wigan the latest emphatic statement of their growing unity as a team. The manager always maintained they would push on when the new players — Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos and Gervinho — started to gel and he has been proved right.