Against Newcastle on the opening weekend Arsenal won a game they could have drawn. Against Burnley at the Emirates Arsenal won a game they probably should have drawn. At Watford they drew a game they should have lost. Away at Manchester United they drew a game that could have gone either way. At home to Bournemouth they won a game they should have drawn. At Sheffield United on Monday, they lost a game that could have finished goalless with few complaints.

Top-level football rests on fine margins, but Unai Emery's Arsenal skirt finer than most and to an unnecessary degree. Arsenal possess the attacking talent to chin most Premier League opponents and put them on the canvas, but far too often find themselves in arm wrestles that leave them vulnerable to a piece of misfortune, a missed chance or one moment of opposition brilliance.

Sheffield United had the potential to be a bookmark in Arsenal's season, with two weeks to ponder their tactical ailments and Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette, Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney returning to fitness. Not one of that quartet were involved from the start at Bramall Lane, although given the galaxy of sports science data behind these decisions is unwise to condemn Emery absent of the facts. Instead of a line in the sand, the 1-0 defeat saw a continuation of themes that had worried Arsenal watchers despite their respectable league position.