Speak to Arsenal’s players and coaching staff about their dreadful recent record away to Stoke City and a miserable run of two draws and three defeats is dismissed as “just one of those things”. Push Arsène Wenger on the subject and the manager is more open, admitting to a series of psychological and physical shortcomings that have made his players more fragile in the Potteries than antique Wedgwood.

Wenger is adamant that this season will be different, of course, and history suggests that it will have to be if Arsenal are to fulfil their potential by winning the title.

In what is either a statistical quirk or a revealing insight into the make-up of champions, no Premier League-winning side have lost away to Stoke, with