The way the rest of the team surrounded Philippe Senderos after his bullet header set up the win against Blackburn spoke volumes about the way the team is thinking and pulling together. Let’s face it we have all had a list of players that we thought were not good enough for Arsenal and Swiss Tony was high on that list along with Alex Song, Mathieu Flamini. And last season even Adebayor was spoken of as not being good enough to lead our line.

Arsene keeps faith with his players and repeatedly sends them out to prove themselves whilst we are all scratching our heads and wondering what he sees that we do not.

OK he is a great manager and motivator but more crucial is that he understands and embodies the Arsenal way, that special bond that has been at our club since Chapman (although a bit dormant in some years). So how do you describe this “Arsenal Way” in terms we can all understand? One of the best books ever written on Arsenal is Forward Arsenal written in 1952 by our amateur centre half Bernard Joy. With this book he gets to the heart of Arsenal better than any other author who has written about our team.

In the introduction of he writes the following:

In short, Arsenal players are willing to put aside their personal ambition for the good of the team and they themselves are in turn happily transformed, the average players into good ones and the good ones into internationals.

This then is the magic of Arsenal - the unique power to bring out the best in an individual to the advancement of both himself and the club.

Although written over 50 years ago it could have been written of quite a few of the current squad.

The huge improvement in certain players’ abilities we have seen many times before under Wenger. And I honestly believe Arsene Wenger came to us to finish the business that Herbert Chapman started all those years ago - to make us not just a top British club but a top world club.

However we have won nothing yet this season and no doubt if another defeat occurs the doom mongers will be out in force. But this team remind me of the 71 double winners. Bertie Mee said individually his players had limitations but collectively they were a formidable outfit. Arsene has said of this team that there are qualities in the side that at first look you don’t see. As for our complaints about not buying proven quality players in the transfer window, Mr Joy sums that up with reference to a player signed just after the war:

There were better individual players in the country but where were the men who would be willing to give their utmost to the club and sink themselves into the framework of the team? One objection to the fancy fees is that the newcomer must be guaranteed a place in the side to justify the enormous expenditure. That is contrary to the spirit at Highbury, where everyone has to fight for his position.

That could have been written by AW himself when responding to fans’ demands for certain players. It ain’t going to happen and I, as a traditionalist, am glad, because I have always believed that adversity is a great character builder. For example are Flamini’s performances this season, where he is playing like a world class international, as a result of his woeful performance when he came on in Champions League final? He, like Philippe, may not be the greatest player in the world - but they are Arsenal and that fact may yet land us the games’ greatest prizes.

I suppose I am a bit too Corinthian for some of you but I have had too much enjoyment watching Arsenal over the past 48 years and I am not going to change now.