North London Rising

By Jonathan Gault

It’s probably too early to tell for sure, but through six games in the 2013-14 Barclays Premier League season, it appears that the balance of power has shifted from Manchester to North London. There was perhaps no better example of this theory than Saturday, when Manchester United and Manchester City lost in the Premier League on the same day for the first time in five years. North London rivals Arsenal and Spurs took advantage, with Arsenal going top following an impressive 2-1 win and Swansea and Spurs moving into third after a 1-1 draw with fourth-place Chelsea.

Since the opening day of the season, Arsenal and Spurs have combined to lose just one game – Spurs’ 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sept. 1. City and United have lost five times in that span, and though one of those was United’s 4-1 loss to City last weekend, losses to Aston Villa and Cardiff (City) and West Brom (United) are tough to swallow given the teams’ 1-2 finish last year.

Masashi Hara/Getty Images

While United’s struggles are the biggest story of the season so far – they’re in 12th place right now – Arsenal’s resurgence has been perhaps the most fun storyline to follow. Since their defeat to Aston Villa on the first day of the season – a match in which everything that could have gone wrong for the Gunners did – Arsenal has won eight of nine in all competitions, with the lone draw coming in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday against West Brom. And even then, Arsenal was able to win on penalties (while playing with a weakened side).

Most fans didn’t expect this, given that Arsenal barely edged Tottenham for the last Champions League spot last year and did little to improve their squad over the summer. But on the final day of the transfer window, Arsenal managed to snag the coveted Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, and they’ve been unstoppable since then. Ozil has been fantastic making attacking plays for Arsenal, but he hasn’t done it alone. Aaron Ramsey has scored eight times in his last eight games and Olivier Giroud has continued his form from last season.

The Gunners looked transcendent at times against Swansea on Saturday, stringing together beautiful touch after beautiful touch around the Swans’ penalty area. Arsenal’s first goal saw eight touches by five players in seven seconds, resulting in an open Serge Gnabry firing a shot from the right side of the area past Swans’ keeper Michel Vorm. Their second was arguably better, as Giroud, Ramsey and Jack Wilshere linked up on the left side to tear apart a befuddled Swansea defense. The move ended with Ramsey taking two touches in the box to freeze Vorm before shooting into the top of the net.

It was brilliant stuff from Arsenal, though Swansea’s goal was also full of class, with Wilfried Bony playing a perfect chip behind Per Mertesacker to set up Ben Davies’ finish. Still, there was no doubting that Arsenal was the superior team on the day, and they’ll look for that fine form to carry over to Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Napoli at the Emirates Stadium.

Again, it’s only been six games, and things can change in a heartbeat in the Premier League. But right now, the road to the title runs through North London.