So now we know: Mikel Arteta had cause for a post-match moan. It turns out Ivan Toney's equaliser, which cost Arsenal victory over Brentford, should have been ruled out —Christian Norgaard was offside, if only VAR Lee Mason had drawn a few lines.
How tempting it will be, then, to redraw conclusions and rejig the script: but for off-field calamity, Arsenal would be back to winning ways ahead of Manchester City's arrival on Wednesday.
How foolish it would be, too. Make no mistake, those Arsenal supporters who filed out of the Emirates, expletives tumbling from their mouths, were frustrated by more than the result.