Opinion: The breakdown of Arsenal's incredible comeback season so far

Marcos Alonso wheeled away towards the corner flag, arms out wide in jubilation. The Chelsea full-back, prolific for a defender, was at it again, and this time, Arsenal were the victims.

As Alonso's teammates ran towards the Spaniard, heads hung low for the North Londoners. Stamford Bridge erupted in joy as Chelsea swept in their third goal at the very death, enshrouding the little pocket of red that had crammed its way into the Matthew Harding end. On the touchline, Unai Emery cut a sorry figure.

Yet just a few minutes earlier, the atmosphere was entirely different. Arsenal fans were the ones making the noise while their West London counterparts looked on anxiously. Chelsea had blown a two-goal lead and had allowed the Gunners to claw it back to 2-2, and at this time, the latter were bombarding Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Chelsea goal with a comeback victory firmly in sight.

Alas, Alonso had other plans, picking up a pass in the opposition box and sweeping it in with his left foot beyond a hapless Petr Cech. Arsenal had choked, yet again. How Arsenal managed to shoot themselves in the foot was a question former manager Arsene Wenger struggled to answer towards the end of his twenty-year-long reign.

It seemed that his successor, the Spaniard Unai Emery, too would find it difficult to manufacture a solution to Arsenal's perennial problems. Granted, the season then was just two games old.

Emery's first game in charge since taking over from the legendary Frenchman was against defending champions Manchester City, who duly humbled them. What worried the Emirates faithful was that their beloved team's defeatist mentality was proving harder to get rid of than they had imagined.

This mindset had, unfortunately, typified Arsenal from towards the latter half of the previous decade: one of submitting, often times without a fight. "Same old Arsenal, same old Arsenal", opposition fans would taunt with glee.

Cut to winter, for this is when the title race heats up gradually. Manchester City is once again lapping up the plaudits while gradually gearing into their ascendancy. Liverpool is still hanging onto Mancunian coattails, with Chelsea a little further behind.

Two of these three teams are yet unbeaten, with Chelsea's demolition at the hands of Tottenham too, seeming like a one-off. Inevitably, endless praise has been heaped on the leading pack in the Premier League.

Away from the glare of the spotlights, however, Emery worked away, silently fitting his players into the jigsaw. While the pundits were kept preoccupied with the top three's antics, Arsenal sneaked up the league table.

The North Londoners may still be fourth, but ever since their capitulations in the first couple of weeks of the season, they've not tasted defeat.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been a revelation up front, with Alexandre Lacazette providing ample support. The duo being on the same wavelength on the pitch has led to Arsenal being quite prolific by their standards: the 5-1 shellacking of Fulham provided much-needed evidence of the Gunners' attacking prowess.

Much credit is owed to Emery for figuring out a system that suits both his strikers and one that gets both sufficient play time as well.

The reason this has been particularly singled out is because of Arsenal's strikers being limp in front of goal in recent years: Olivier Giroud struggled before he left for Chelsea, Danny Welbeck hasn't yet really established his claim to the role of the focal point, while even Alexis Sanchez cannot be excused for his all too frequent lapses.

Auba, as he is affectionately called, too looked out of sorts in Wenger's last few months, but his form this season has swept over memories of his struggles with aplomb.

The newfound directness in Arsenal's attack - as seen in the brutal dismantling of Tottenham - is due to Emery taking cognizance of his star forward's blistering pace and shaping up the team accordingly; the relatively slower build up under Wenger wasn't exactly suiting the Gabon international.

But even Aubameyang has been outshined this season by an obscure Uruguayan. Lucas Torreira's signing in the summer barely elicited a splash in the media, but within half a season, the twenty-two year old is making waves.

His consistency and solidity is the rubric around which Arsenal's midfield operates, and it is a role he has been remarkably effective in. The vision he brings to the team, coupled with his devastating distribution skills has seen the Arsenal faithful accelerating their veneration of him.

Torreira is the complete modern midfielder, disciplined and devilish at the same time. He brings a creative spark while going forward, but his attacking traits do not make him less industrious: he has been instrumental in Emery's high pressing style, winning the ball back and spraying it out wide towards the galloping wing backs.

His consistency seemingly is contagious, with his arrival having sparked an upturn in Granit Xhaka's form as well

Torreira's accommodation in the starting eleven meant having an extra man in midfield: Emery had to sacrifice a defender in order to facilitate his midfield to dictate the play on numerous occasions.

The resultant 3-4-3 formation has allowed Arsenal to do just that: once again, it was the midfield and Torreira especially who drove Arsenal's second-half charge against Tottenham. Xhaka, Torreira, and Ramsey established Arsenal's supremacy in the middle of the pitch, stifling the effervescent Moussa Dembele.

Dembele suddenly was rattled, and his diminishing influence was another factor that sparked the Gunners' turnaround. The Uruguayan even managed to get himself on the scoresheet when he slotted the fourth goal past Lloris to put the game beyond doubt.

Typically, the Arsenal midfield in the latter Wenger years has been one that has struggled to impose himself consistently throughout the season, and the praise that has been heaped on them may be premature, but the signs of impending success are all there.

A youthful, hungry and dynamic set of players under the tutelage of a young manager with a lot to prove sounds eerily similar to the Arsenal of the early 2000s, which was their most successful period in the recent past.

There has been a noticeable increase in Arsenal's pace of play - Emery has brought about a little tweak in Arsenal's expansive ways. By cranking the speed up a notch, his methods are similar to what Luis Enrique did at Barcelona when he modified tiki-taka to make it suit the fast-paced modern game.

In the process, he orchestrated the Catalans' treble-winning victories. Arsenal, under Wenger in his final few seasons, seemed bereft of ideas and lacking spark. Despite having quick players, they couldn't cope with the speed at which the game was being played.

Emery's arrival ensured that they had with them a coach who was in sync with contemporary footballing trends, something that reflects in Arsenal's newfound swagger. This is not to say that Arsenal is in a position to lay siege on three fronts yet - even the most optimistic Gooner will refuse to concur.

Indeed, Arsenal is their own worst enemy, and the sheer number of false dawns in the last decade for them will immediately cause fans to be slightly skeptical about their own prospects.

Arsenal traditionally does well this time of the year, only to spectacularly collapse in winter, but then manage to power themselves to a top-four finish towards the end. The consistency with which Arsenal are inconsistent reduced their title ambitions to a farce, and all this while, they only had themselves to blame for it.

But this time around, the tools seem to be in place. The stage looks set for Arsenal to reemerge as a force in the English title race, something that has been long overdue.