Arsenal have been terrific ...but they still won’t come close to winning the title

NOTTINGHAM Forest deserved their victory over Liverpool but it’s worth noting the players who, for one reason or another, were not able to play for Jurgen Klopp’s team.

Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate, Darwin Nunez and Naby Keita were all unavailable.

I mention this not to talk down Forest’s achievement but to illustrate what life is like in this hectic and crammed Premier League season. Specifically I mention it because at some stage we can expect it to happen to Arsenal.

The north London club’s record as we approach a quarter of the season played is as extraordinary as it has been surprising.

The contrast to the meek way last season ended is marked. Arsenal kept faith in coach Mikel Arteta’s vision when things were not good and have been rewarded with the shaping of a team in the very image of a Spaniard who, as a player, was both clever and mentally durable enough to thrive in the Premier League.

But Arsenal will not win the league. They will not come close to winning the league. Even now, after such a terrific start, a place in the top four next May would be a significant and worthy achievement.

At some stage, Arsenal will suffer the injury setbacks that come the way of all squads over a long season and this is where the stockpiling of talent that has been under way for so long at clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and even Liverpool is likely to come in to play.

Arteta’s squad is deeper than it has been for a while. Already the Spaniard is coping without one of his key summer signings, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and the talented young playmaker Emile Smith Rowe. At left back Arsenal are remarkably well- stocked. Kieran Tierney, once a fixture, struggles to make the team these days.

Elsewhere, though, Arsenal look vulnerable to the vicissitudes of form and fitness. Is there are a replacement for centre forward Gabriel Jesus or the terrific Norwegian midfielder Martin Odegaard? Probably not. The central defensive partnership of Gabriel and William Saliba also looks fundamental.

So this is an Arsenal group that looks short in terms of making a proper dent in City’s run of titles that we can expect to extend to five in six seasons this time round.

Arteta will know this, too. But he will also know that the signs of real progress are evident.

For so long Arsenal were said to be mentally and emotionally uncertain simply because they were. Last season ended with them needing results at Tottenham and then at Newcastle in order to finish in the top four. They were dreadful in losing both games. There seems to have been a shift, there. Arteta has bought goals in the shape of Jesus but it is the collective will that seems to run through Arsenal now that is different.

It is a shame we were robbed of the game with City that should have taken place in midweek. It had to be postponed because of Arsenal’s Europa League fixture.

When it eventually does take place, the chances are gravity will have taken its toll on Arsenal a little.

A Champions League placing would represent sound work by Arteta. He is building a platform that few would have thought likely last May.