Arsenal have, at last, managed to negotiate a Champions League group stage and come out on top once again.

If this is to be Arsene Wenger’s final season in charge at the Emirates Stadium, one final attempt at winning the Champions League - exactly a decade after his last appearance in the final - would be fitting. The last time Arsenal went unbeaten in the Champions League group stages was 2006, the year they lost in the final.

[ffc_insert title="An Ode to Thierry Henry" name="Golden Goal" image="https://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2000-10-01T000000Z_1_MT1ACI235759_RTRMADP_3_SPORT.jpg?admin" link="https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/arsenal/arsenal-v-manchester-united-an-ode-to-thierry-henrys-greatest-ever-goal" link_text="Relive a wonderstrike" ]

Over the course of the first few months of the season, Arsenal have gone from a ‘typical Arsenal’ laughing stock after their 4-3 defeat to Liverpool on the opening day of the season, to ‘new Arsenal’ title contenders, and then back again to ‘don’t-we-say-this-every-year Arsenal’.

But even if we do say this every year, there genuinely does seem to be a difference.

One of the criticisms often aimed at the Gunners over the past decade or so has been about their soft underbelly. Under Wenger, Arsenal have been nice boys, ‘sons in law’, as Graeme Souness would say. The kinds of boys you wouldn’t mind your daughter taking home to meet the family: not the rabid neanderthals that it takes to win a Premier League title. You can’t really say that about summer signings Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi - though I’m sure their mothers in law love them very much.

As always, Arsenal suffered a difficult November. But this part of the season isn’t all about points accrued. It’s also about giving yourself a platform to spring from later in the season. Difficult, their month may have been, but unbeaten records in the league in Europe are to be celebrated. Surely there’s more merit in squeezing out three draws in games they should have lost than losing two games abjectly and easing a victory against a lesser side.

In fact, that has often been Arsenal’s problem: they suffer defeats because their defence lacks steel, but then they dominate a game and win 3-1. So suddenly, the crisis is over and Arsenal are back. But what we failed to mention was that none of the problems were actually solved, and one swallow doesn’t make a summer.

This year, they’ve ground out draws. It’s one of the tragedy of the three points for a win system that such draws are negative results whilst victories over struggling Sunderland and Swansea gain you three times the point haul.

That’s not to blame the system. It’s to point out that there are nuances involved when speaking about results, especially in November. And especially when talking about Arsenal this season.

Why? Because this is the first time in decade that listening to Arsene Wenger speak is to listen to a man in control of the conversation, not one trying to bat it away. Because watching Arsenal isn’t to watch a team who you feel are going to crumble because of one bad break. Because Arsenal may have actually changed.

Before the Champions League tie with Basel on Tuesday night, Arsene Wenger spoke about how second place in the group could be better than first place. He was wrong. It’s true by coming first you may face Bayern Munich - but given current Champions League form, i’d rather face Bayern than Atletico Madrid, who topped that group - and possibly Real Madrid - though if Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, that’ll be a moot point. It’s true that first place is possibly more daunting than it usually is. But it’s not true that it’s better.

[ffc_insert title="The worst signings of the season" name="Top of the Flops" image="https://www.footballfancast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Simone-Zaza-5-2.jpg?admin" link="https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/ffcs-ten-worst-signings-of-the-season" link_text="Hall of Shame" ]

But that’s the kind of managerial lie that the likes of Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson have indulged in for years. It’s the kind of lie that gets people believing that they might be right. Beyond simply diminishing expectations, it shows Wenger is in control.

And by topping the group in the Champions League, he is in control. By coming through a period of tricky games and poor form unbeaten except for a defeat to Southampton in a trophy that Wenger has never won nor even shown that much of a desire to ever win, Wenger has shown that his team are steelier than ever before.

Yes, every year we talk about Arsenal in a positive light at some point. Yes, every year we’re disappointed. But no, we never ever refer to Arsenal as a steely side who grind out wins. November started with a last-gasp victory over Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League before three draws in a row in all competitions: all three were games Arsenal could have lost against Tottenham, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain. In a slump in form, they managed to gain points which will be valuable - since then, with the exception of the League Cup defeat, Arsenal have scored 12 goals in their last three Premier League or Champions League games.

They’ve weathered the storm and are back in action. Maybe the same can be said of Arsenal over the past decade.

[ad_pod id='domino-survey' align='center']

[ad_pod id='playwire' align='center']