Since 2005 Arsenal have been treading water. Alternating between third and fourth for the past seven seasons, they were stuck in a rut, taking two steps forward and three back, in neutral - whatever tortured metaphor you'd prefer. When smaller trends develop within the context of a greater trend, e.g. the club losing or winning a small run of fixtures, it becomes tempting to read too much into it, since it's more interesting to imagine the team doing something, anything, that isn't finishing either third or fourth again. Arsenal are a shoe in for the title! or Arsenal to drop out of the Champions League at last!

I make this point since the desire to label this year as Arsenal's year is almost too great to bear. The stadium is almost paid off; the money is there to spend and Ebenezer Wenger has just bought us a 40 million pound turkey for christmas; the squad is brimming with attacking talent, our potential title rivals are consistent only in their inconsistency and in the 2013 calendar year, Arsenal have taken 6 more points that any other team in the top flight (see this table for proof).

And yet we've experienced false dawns before, occasions where a good run of results has been derailed by one poor performance, precipitating a series of draws and losses. Likewise sequences of pisspoor results have been turned on their head by just one surprising win. In many respects it's the fortunes of this Arsenal team that are more difficult to predict than anyone else's in this league, thanks, in large part, to their ability to surprise you with either a sublime or ridiculous performance when you least expect it.

And yet the sublime is becoming less surprising this season, which can be at least partially traced back to the arrival of the man above, whom you may know as Mesut Özil. It's often said that one exceptional footballer can elevate the level at which an entire club plays; we saw it with Dennis Bergkamp, whose skill and eye for a pass were contagious and in whose shadow players like Marc Overmars could, paradoxically, flourish. Greatness begets greatness (well, up to a point; just ask the current Man Utd squad), and in Özil we have a player, like Bergkamp, who can take us to the next level.

This was illustrated perfectly in the first 15 minutes of the Champions League tie against Napoli which was, and I don't say this lightly, the best quarter of an hour of football that I've seen this team play since the second half of the 2-1 win over Barcelona. Napoli, a team that's taken 16 points from a possible 18 domestically, as well as beating last season's CL finalists Borussia Dortmund in their first group game, were made to look wildly out of their depth as they chased shadows and ghosts during much of the first half. Arsenal pressed high up the pitch, they forced mistakes, they moved the ball quickly and incisively, and most importantly, they gave themselves a two goal cushion to defend.

The first goal was exquisite as each player executed their roles perfectly - Giroud showed strength and deftness of touch as he held the ball up before flicking it down the line for Ramsey who charged into space and had the vision to pick out the unmarked Özil on the edge of the box; the German's sidefooted volley was simply the exclamation point at the end of an elegantly simple move. The subsequent look of unbridled joy on Wenger's face was worth the ticket price alone.

Özil played a vital role in the second goal too, receiving the ball from Giroud in the final third before breaking to the byline to cut the ball back to the Frenchman on a plate for a tap in. Commentators like to trot out phrases like '2-0 is the most dangerous scoreline in football', the rationale presumably being that you start to feel too comfortable with a two goal cushion, and by the time you've conceded the goal that makes it 2-1, the momentum is entirely with your opponents. Annoyingly that used to be true of this Arsenal team, but the re-introduction of Mathieu Flamini in midfield means that even at 10-0, someone will still be barking orders at the back four, telling midfielders where to stand at set pieces etc.

Incisiveness up front and mental fortitude at the back; if you'd asked any Arsenal fan 6 months ago what this team was most in need of, they'd have probably said those two things. Or they'd have told you we needed to get rid of Wenger, but then they'd be looking mighty foolish right now. A quick note on the gaffer, who recently celebrated his 17th anniversary at the club - in those eight years that Arsenal were spinning their wheels in third and fourth place, it was Wenger that kept the club's head above water financially. Without him we wouldn't be where we are today. Among the other names allegedly on the shortlist prior to his appointment in 96 was Terry Venables. Pause for a moment, if you will, and imagine where the club might be today if Terry had been appointed ahead of Arsene. Still at Highbury, for one.

Even the great Johan Cruyff, who was the bookies' top candidate 17 years ago might have struggled to keep a team competitive during a sustained period of sustantial hardship with no external financial backing from a foreign investor. But that's exactly what Wenger has done, and now we're reaping the rewards without having sold the club's soul, allowing our fans to continue smugly dismissing the credentials of the Manchester Citys and Chelseas of this world. Thank you Arsene, you deserved better than what you got, but hopefully redemption is closer than ever.

So here's looking forward to less of this:



And more of this:



Happy anniversary Arsene.