Arsenal took their perfect Champions League record into one of Europe's great arena and put on a show.
The returning Gabriel Jesus found a clever, improvised finish to give Mikel Arteta's side a 1-0 lead over Inter Milan as they sought to make it seven wins out of seven in the league phase. Inter played their part in a pulsating back-and-forth affair and equalised through Petar Susic, but Arsenal still looked like they had the extra gears and more varied options to hurt their opponents, even though Arteta had rotated his lineup.
Then, they scored again. Jesus' second was Arsenal's 19th from a corner this season and 25th from a set-piece.
Honestly, these guys are never beating the allegations.
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Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004. Ending that wait is an end in itself for the Gunners' faithful. Whatever means are adopted justify reaching that goal. Because winning the league is for those people, for Arsenal fans. It's not for anyone else, which is exactly how it should be.
But champion teams — increasingly, it looks like Arteta's men can win multiple major honours this season — invite external opinion and, right now, the optics aren't great.
Arsene Wenger's Invincibles of 2003/04 were widely lauded for their banner achievement and the stylish manner in which they got there. His 2001/02 side that ended three titles in a row for Manchester United was arguably even better, and Wenger's first title winners in 1997/98 showed English football there was a radical new way of doing things. Without Wenger, as much as Arsenal supporters might wince at this, you don't get Jose Mourinho at Chelsea or Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. He changed everything.
On the other hand, the decade of wasteful decline and self-parody under Wenger created so much of the damaging mental baggage around Arsenal that Arteta has had to remove, painstakingly, piece by piece. To tap into the vogue nonsense chat around a football club's DNA: if Arteta's men being more George Graham "1-0 to the Arsenal" s---housery than Wenger-era va va voom brings home the title, then no one on the red half of north London will care a jot. Ethan Nwaneri can rediscover himself on loan at Marseille while pace, power and directness is the order of the day.
7 - Arsenal have won seven successive UEFA Champions League games for the first time in their history; only Manchester City (10 in March 2024) have enjoyed a longer winning run in the competition among English sides. Heaven. Pic.twitter.com/s83bCGa3b8
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 20, 2026
Not every Premier League title triumph needs a statement win. But if Arsenal take Manchester United apart at Emirates Stadium this weekend, it could do plenty to change the mood around Arteta's side. It's a mood that has come to feel quite heavy. Winning matches and, hopefully, titles is supposed to be the most fun you can have in football. Arsenal's big question feels as much like a grim trudge as it does a joyful expedition.
For all the baggage Arteta has removed, three runners-up finishes in succession have added some. In 2022/23, they threw away a title lead under pressure from Manchester City, but the consensus was that the opportunity came a year too soon for a team still coming together. The season after, with the addition of the talismanic Declan Rice in midfield, Arsenal did little wrong as they pushed City to the final day. The 2024/25 campaign, where City collapsed having failed to replenish an ageing squad, is the one that really hurts. Arteta's men had usurped Liverpool as the second best team in the country and the Reds were going to feel the aftershocks of Jurgen Klopp's departure. They weren't supposed to waltz away with the league as Arsenal fumbled to draw after maddening draw.
MORE: Arsenal vs. Man United head to head: All-time record, recent results
So it's understandable that there's almost suffocating tension despite Arsenal holding a seven-point lead over a City side that has 11 players in their first team squad that had not played for them a year ago. Guardiola's side will come out of their recent wobble, but they are not the phenomenal big beast of Arsenal's nightmares anymore.
There have also been some banner wins this season. Tottenham were demolished 4-1 in the north London derby, even if Eberechi Eze's switch from hat-trick hero to unused substitute has become the main enduring curiosity of that game. Aston Villa were take to pieces by the same scoreline after Christmas, having threatened to fully thrust themselves into the title race.
On the other hand, eight of Arsenal's 15 Premier League wins in 2025/26 have come by a solitary goal. When you leave margins so fine, you run the risk of the back-to-back goalless draws with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest that failed to fully punish City's January slump.
"[Arsenal are] the best team right now in the world," Guardiola said ahead of City's match against Wolves this weekend. "Look at the Champions League, the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup. This is the best team right now. Hopefully, we can be close."
Everyone knows Arsenal should be champions this season. If they can play with the elan they did during the first half against Inter and thrill a packed house by taking down Wenger's old enemies from Manchester, they would finally start to look and feel like champions, too.