Arsenal's 3-0 win against Sunderland was proficient rather than magnificent. There is the square root of nothing wrong with that at this stage of the season.
As they edge towards the title some people, including me, would like a little more pizzazz, but in the end it doesn't matter. They just need the points and again they were at their miserly best with yet another clean sheet.
Four clean sheets in their last five league games tells a story of what Arteta wants right now and with William Saliba and Gabriel in front of David Raya he will regularly continue to get it.
They have lost only 17 goals in 25 league games this season, project that forward at the same rate and it comes to 28 goals in 38 games by the end of the campaign. That meanness is one of the major signs of champions. In the past six seasons, the Premier League winners have averaged losing 33.3 goals per campaign and only Man City in 2021-22 shipped fewer than 28 with a measly 26.
For all the star quality throughout their squad, it is probably those two stoic centre-backs who hold the keys to the Premier League trophy room.
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