If Arsenal are going to do the unthinkable and win their first league title in 19 years this season, they will need every one of the talented squad to hit top form at some point along the way.
That is what perhaps separates this Arsenal side from their title rivals – there is no superstar, no reliance on any particular player. Each week, different individuals have stepped up to keep the Gunners on course for the most unlikely to title successes.
For all their embarrassment of riches, Manchester City are not the same team without Kevin De Bruyne in it and where would Manchester United be without Marcus Rashford’s goals? The match-winning mantle is passed around at Arsenal. This week, the responsibility fell on Gabriel Martinelli.
While the goal was a typically aesthetically-pleasing Arsenal goal that earned them a narrow 1-0 win over Leicester City to stretch their advantage atop the Premier League, the performance was anything but vintage Gunners. The scoreline, however, does not give a true reflection of how comfortable the victory nonetheless was.
It is easy to forget Martinelli is still 21, given he seems to have been in the Arsenal vernacular for so long. But finally injury free – he has started all but two of Arsenal’s league games this year – the Brazilian is starting to have the influence on his side his talent always threatened to produce. Two crucial goals in the space of a week means Arsenal fans can still dream their barren run without a league crown is nearing its end.
It is easy to forget Leicester have won the Premier League title more recently than Arsenal. The King Power Stadium pre-match amble and terrace chants gave visiting supporters a reminder of such.
Leicester have fallen a long way since those heady title-winning days and without their talisman James Maddison in midfield, they offered very little attacking threat in the first half, despite getting into some promising situations. Arsenal’s nemesis, Jamie Vardy, remains very much on the periphery in the twilight of his career.
Arsenal dominated possession and it looked a matter of time until they found the net. Leandro Trossard, deployed as a false nine with Eddie Nketiah not fully fit, thought he was the one to break the hosts’ meagre resistance, but his arrowing effort into the top corner was ruled out following a VAR review. Ben White was adjudged to have fouled Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward.
Somehow, while showing very little sign of their recent improvement, Leicester held on until the break. But whatever Mikel Arteta said to rally the troops during the interval had an instant impact, as Trossard slipped a sublime pass into Martinelli 51 seconds into the second half and the 21-year-old did the rest, with an assurance that defied his years.
Arsenal should have put the game to bed from a string of more than presentable chances in the second half, Gabriel missing the best of them, heading straight at Ward from point blank range.
In reality, however, the result was never in doubt. The Foxes recent revival – they had won three of their last four prior to Arsenal’s visit – meant the Gunners travelled north fully anticipating needing to be at their best to leave the King Power with a valuable three points.
Even the introduction Vardy late on, who has scored more goals against Arsenal than any other opponent in his career, did little to galvanise the hosts.
Instead, for the second game in a row, after his late clincher at Aston Villa last weekend, a player whose influence is growing week by week on this team came up trumps.
One-nil to the Arsenal is a much rarer scoreline these days, but the travelling Gunners faithful took great pride in singing about it once more. Champions win games in all manner of ways.
