Arsenal descend from the scaffolding built by Mikel Arteta | Arsenal

Maybe the world doesn’t end after all. Or at least not yet, anyway. For Arsenal, as for the Premier League, the title race is still alive, still restless, like a dog kicking in its sleep and wondering if it should wake up.

The past week has been seen as a crisis moment for Mikel Arteta’s side, with cup defeats, dropped points, the attack and midfield suffering from a sort of football boredom. Certainly, the energy around this team can often seem manic, too low and then too high.

But Arsenal played with a focused spirit at the Emirates Stadium and were good value for money for a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham that leaves them just four points behind Liverpool, and with their season shrinking to a championship pursuit extended until spring.

If so, it will be against the head. Liverpool have enough fresh air to swallow a tricky race. There is also no suggestion at present that Arsenal are coiled up to suck up every available point from here, like relentless nihilistic avengers passing sideways. But just on the shoulder of the leaders, you still have to find your best form. It’s not a bad place to be.

That’s certainly how it felt at the end, as Freed From Desire ran amok in the stands, as Freed From Desire must do on all similar occasions, as men in quilted coats hugged and were swinging in the aisles. But it was also a victory that contained information. The side is good. The side is together. The team is also still struggling to find the most liberated version of themselves. Playing this way, Arsenal simply won’t score enough regulation goals – wildcard goals, unmarked goals, goals from open play – to win the routine games that make you champions.

This comes from the same methods that made progress under Arteta. And this progress is measurable, clearly present. You can point a stick at it. They win more matches. Football is better. They are locked in for the Champions League places again. Intensity and control are good. Too much intensity and control, maybe not so much.

Both sides of this dynamic were on display in this match. Arsenal’s winner towards half-time was a rare thing, a traditional Arsenal goal. All the components were there. Thomas Partey’s pressing ball flight, Martin Ødegaard with the shuttle pass, Leandro Trossard’s neat spanking finish. Left side, open play, true designated attacking player. It was like a break from everyday life, a sort of dating goal. You know, we should do this all the time.

On either side there was once again evidence of a slightly hampered reliance on set pieces. In a sense, Arsenal have built a scaffolding for themselves through their success on this path, something that has perhaps tipped into an addiction. Stay away from stage sets. Mix it up. Take a short one. Smell the roses. My name is Declan. And I’ve been clean for 10 minutes.

These patterns were there from the beginning. The air was hazy under the lights, the kind of soft, cozy January haze that seems to put a roof over the world. It was as if most of the first half hour had been spent watching the yellow Premier League ball cross that sky, hanging there all alone against the cold white lights, punted and kicked back into the firmament, football like a game of heaven.

Arsenal even fell behind to a Spurs free-kick, well taken by Son Heung-min, but helped by sleepy marking and a weak pirouette from William Saliba as Son executed his volley. And so Arsenal started to drive that point home again. At times, as Ødegaard settled on another dead ball, there was a weariness to the whole spectacle, like watching a career magician see someone in half for the four-thousandth time.

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Rice’s delivery was disappointing for most of the match. Bukayo Saka has many qualities. Putting the ball in the same place every time is part of it. Removing him from this version of Arsenal is like the England rugby team losing Jonny Wilkinson.

But it also works. The seventh corner of the half brought the equalizer, one of those moments where Rice’s slightly risky shot really works. Gabriel’s move forced Radu Dragusin to head towards Dominic Solanke and from there into the Spurs net. Was it another masterstroke? Arsenal: So good at set pieces that they’ll make you score an own goal.

From there, things started to improve. There were some very good performances. Trossard was good. Myles Lewis-Skelly was excellent, a very good modern full-back, fearless and fearless. Spurs played well and showed heart to chase the game. Arsenal showed the same to hold on.

And so we continue. By coincidence of timing, Arsenal travel to Anfield on May 10, with simply needing to be within touching distance by then. Some even say that the reappearance of David Moyes in time for the rescheduled Merseyside derby would be a sort of intervention in the title race, an albatross on the horizon, the man of resurrection, the anointing of kings, who only really works if you have I haven’t seen much of Everton. But still. Despite all the intensity, the floating anxiety, this thing continues to work.