Who are you? And what have you done with Arsenal? At the final whistle in this oddly stately, bizarrely unruffled 2-0 away defeat of Manchester City Arsenal’s players, led by the outstanding (for more reasons than one) Francis Coquelin, formed a brief, triumphant huddle. Understandably so. For the first time since they were last champions themselves Arsenal had won away at the Premier League title-holders. More than this a team that so often against the best has appeared to have not steel but custard in its veins had produced a performance of unexpected discipline and even, in the shape of Coquelin, genuine snarl and snap.

And yet in a sense this was a tactical triumph for Arsène Wenger that will exasperate some supporters as much as it provides cause for optimism. It is no mystery why Arsenal have lost so often away from home against the better teams, with a central midfield that has so often been a soft-touch combination of the inappropriately skilled and the physically depleted, a team intent on coming to a knife fight armed with a baguette.

Here finally there was a substantive change to the guts of Arsenal’s starting XI from that run of recent away thrashings – the 5-1, the 6-0, the 6-3 in this stadium – as Coquelin came into the space vacated by Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere. In the event the Frenchman, starting the biggest game of his career to date, produced a performance of intelligence and brawn in exactly the place Arsenal have so clearly needed both.

It is worth being clear all the same. This wasn’t so much a tactical change as an enforced one. Had Wenger’s preferred personnel been fit Coquelin would most likely not have played, never mind his obvious suitability for the role. With this in mind the long overdue concession to fielding a bespoke defensive midfielder with bite and energy is either a masterstroke or another stick with which to beat Wenger, depending on your preference.

And certainly it would be wrong to suggest Coquelin is the missing piece in the jigsaw for Arsenal. But he is at least an educated guess at what that piece might look like. In eight matches the Frenchman has played since his recall from Charlton Athletic Arsenal have now won six, lost one and drawn one. He may or may not end up being the answer for Wenger but he is an indication of how Arsenal’s attacking riches could flourish if they could recruit a Coquelin type at the same level as, say, Santi Cazorla or Alexis Sánchez.

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Here Coquelin’s composed, positionally astute presence in a 4-1-4-1 formation helped Cazorla to flourish in the centre. Throughout the Spaniard’s supreme two-footed command of the ball at his feet was both a source of incision and a defensive boon as he carried the ball clear and protected possession, releasing the pressure with his ability to hold the ball and beat a man.

It was a muscular beginning to the game generally with both central midfields in concussive mood and with Coquelin snapping and intercepting and above all showing no ambition to do anything other than occupy, energetically, that shielding space.

As City slowly ceded their early possession, and with Fernando and Fernandinho an overly lateral pair in a midfield lacking Yaya Touré’s drive, Sánchez began to turn and run at City’s defence from an inside-left position. One slaloming jink just before the 20-minute mark drew gasps at the speed of his acceleration, those little feet that hit the turf like a boxer smacking the speed bag.

Vincent Kompany has at times looked alarmingly heavy-footed of late as he did here conceding a penalty midway through the first half from which Arsenal took the lead. It was a cynical little nudge by Kompany on the marauding Nacho Monreal, City’s captain simply blocking Monreal’s run rather than challenging him, and rightly penalised just as the dark arts of shirt pulling and obstruction are deemed to be beyond the pale now.

At half-time, with Arsenal cruising at 1-0, Manuel Pellegrini brought on Stevan Jovetic , tucking him in behind Sergio Agüero as a roving No10 with the idea of disrupting those clean defensive lines. The instructions were clear enough: get in Coquelin’s space, make him turn and sweat. Twice in his first couple of minutes on the pitch Jovetic actually shoved Coquelin out of his way as City swarmed around Arsenal’s defensive block in a familiar high-tempo, mob-handed press.

It was exactly the kind of high-intensity physicality that has seen Arsenal wilt on these away days. Here though they adjusted and retrenched in the face of City’s increased tempo. And on 66 minutes they were 2-0 up. Cazorla floated in a straight free-kick, Fernandinho failed to run with Olivier Giroud and the Frenchman headed the ball in without a challenge. It was the most fittingly old Arsenal-ish of goals to concede, a straight right to the jaw that somehow managed to dump the champions on their backsides.