Can Arsenal sustain title tilt when squad gets stretched?

Nine wins from 10 top-flight games bear out that impression. It is Arsenal’s best start to a Premier League season, a point ahead of the Invincibles’ 2003 tally

GREAT START: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has seen his side make an excellent start to the season. Pic: PA

It augurs well when the breaks start going your way. Aaron Ramsdale knew it, judging by his fist-pumping reaction to Patrick Bamford’s penalty miss at Elland Road; Mikel Arteta almost certainly did, if his visible ecstasy at seeing Leeds correctly denied another go in injury time is any measure. 

For the second time in 72 hours Arsenal rode their luck navigating a tricky away assignment and with each banana skin avoided the sense grows that they are on to something special.