The players know this riff. They know the outside world questions their intestinal fortitude, their need (as opposed to their desire) to win. After the Community Shield win over Chelsea, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said: “Ever since I’ve been at Arsenal, we’ve had numerous quality players and the whole squad has been very strong. It just seemed that in the big games we came up short sometimes and you wonder why. The mentality going into those games was definitely a big thing. Since I’ve been here we’ve steadily got better at that, especially last year.”