Arsenal add graft to craft as they finally challenge at top of Premier League

The Gunners beat Everton 2-1 on Saturday and sit level on points with Manchester City at the top of the table

It is two decades since George Graham observed with admiration, after an Arsenal defeat to Fabio Capello’s Milan, “good players, working hard, that’s their secret”.

As the years have gone by Arsenal’s players have, technically, become as good as those rossoneri champions, but the work rate that underpinned Graham’s own winning teams has not always been evident.

On the evidence of this season, that is changing. Maybe it is the workaholic example of Alexei Sanchez, maybe the realisation that their talent would not fulfil potential without adding graft to craft, but Arsenal are now tracking back and making tackles with the enthusiasm of a giant-killing lower division team.

“They came off the pitch really tired,” said manager Arsène Wenger after Arsenal had beaten Everton 2-1 to go top of the Premier League for the first time in 20 months. “They are all on board and they have the belief.”

For example, Santi Cazorla is not everyone’s idea of a holding midfielder but, noted Wenger, “he won many balls and blocked many tackles, even [Mesut] Özil did. You need to convince the players that you have to work hard to win games in the Premier League and that you need all 11 to do that.

“It is not easy to get that in the team, but once you have it, it shows the belief is there. Then you need enough humility to keep it in there.”

That is key, so much so that Wenger mentioned humility in both his immediate post-match press conference, and the subsequent briefing for daily papers. Complacency is the enemy of success.

Having got to the top, even if only for a day, Arsenal must continue doing the things that got them there, rather than feel they need to assume a different role. There is a still a very long way to go but Wenger draws comfort from their consistency this calendar year.

“What is the most pleasing for me is there is a continuity between the end of last season and the start of this season, despite the fact we had some hiccups, against West Ham, Olympiakos and Zagreb,” he said. “In the league, since the first match against West Ham, in every game we have been in the fight, in the race. It is continuity from last year, with high focus and desire from our team. The attitude is, ‘How can we improve?’ We learn from defeat, we learn from wins and to learn from wins sometimes is more difficult because it’s less natural.”

Everton, by contrast, are learning from defeats at present, having not won in October. Roberto Martinez was as upbeat as ever but though Everton had chances to snatch a draw Arsenal were always the better team.

“In football, you get measured on how you respond to adversity and we were terrific in that respect,” the manager said, searching for positives. Another was the form of teenager Brendan Galloway, who has settled so well at left-back that Leighton Baines has barely been missed. Zimbabwean-born, but living in England since he was six, Galloway was signed from Milton Keynes at 18 and already looks as if he could be a coup to match the signing of John Stones from Barnsley at the same age.

While some clubs scour the globe for youngsters, Everton continue to prove there is talent both on Merseyside – with Tyias Browning deputising well for Seamus Coleman earlier this season – and in the youth ranks of Football League clubs.