Arsenal pass another test with striking style - this Gunners side are like no other

If you're a fan of both Arsenal and Symbolism, then your Sunday lunch was a particularly fun time.

Arsenal are back at the top of the league after brushing aside Brentford on their own turf with almost dismissive and arrogant ease.

Lead the league. It's a very good symbol, isn't it? Especially a league that contains this utter nonsense of a Manchester City side and, to a much lesser extent, a Tottenham side whose current position and total points seem totally at odds with their performance.

But back to the North London side where things look a lot more compelling and enduring. There was no more suitable ground for Arsenal to show how good they are and how far they have come in a relatively short period of time.

It was, of course, at Brentford on the opening night of last season, where Mikel Arteta's side had their pants pulled so ruthlessly by the Premier League's new boys.< /p>

And for a final, decisive dose of symbolism not just about the direction of Arsenal's journey, but the long-term nature of what they're trying to achieve - or really bring back - for the club, Arteta has ended a pretty brilliant afternoon by bringing on a 15-year-old substitute. A player who was not born when Dennis Bergkamp retired. A player who has only known Arsenal for having only one stadium, for crazy...

What happens to Ethan Nwaneri is impossible to know. But Arsenal fans are increasingly sure of what is happening to their club. Fans now fully giddy certainly enjoyed his appearance, singing happily if inaccurately about how he had "school in the morning" to complete an afternoon where the Arsenal support were able to browse their current favorite hits.

The opening goal was headed in brilliantly by William Saliba, his second goal of the season already prompting the latest full-throated rendition of the wonderfully camp and incredibly catchy reinvention of Tequila that has become an Arsenal trademark .

Saliba is a fascinating case. For all your Gabriel Jesus and your Aleksandar Zinchenko, Saliba has surely been the most transformative player in this Arsenal team. The tantalizing "what if?" Would the end of the 2021/22 season have been different? Or would he not be quite the player he has become? Right now, Arsenal fans don't give a damn. And you know what? Fair enough. DO-DO-DO-DO DO-DO DO!

Gabriel Jesus headed in a second that owed equal parts of a teasing delivery from Granit Xhaka and neck muscles from Jesus, while the best of goals came just after half-time to put any idea beyond question of a Brentford comeback as Fabio Vieira's first Premier League start earned him a magnificent goal sent over the post from 25 yards out.

Arsenal fans didn't need to be too inventive to come up with a chant for this one. It all looks so wonderful and there are growing signs that Arsenal are deviating from their recent roller coaster-based mark.

The defeat at Manchester United could so easily have been the start of a downward turn, with Brentford gone precisely – and last season, in particular – the kind of game Old Arsenal would turn this into bullshit. The postponement of the penalty presented by Everton at home could have been a hammer blow in the momentum of Arsenal. Not at all.

It would be a bit of a stretch to claim, as many have, that beating Brentford is particularly important. GT Tech...