How devilishly peculiar. West Ham are getting rather less than they deserve at the moment and equally there is a sense that the team who beat them on Saturday may be flattering to deceive in their recent invincibility.
In Arsenal’s case that is especially interesting and yet in these times of plenty most folk will not care a jot that their eight games without defeat emitted a whiff of good fortune. Most folk; not all.
And that is where the realism of Mikel Arteta kicks in. He is hardly the sort for getting giddy with first impressions, and so it was fairly prescient and heartening post-match when he started talking about ships and what lies beneath the surface.