Jon Brodkin on how Arsene Wenger's current side are aware that it would earn its place in history by emulating the double-winning team of 1998.
Arsene Wenger compares this part of the season to running the bend in the 200 metres, and Arsenal look like Michael Johnson as the finish comes into sight. When the manager is talking of the treble and of making his club the biggest on the planet, it is clear that something is going right.
As in 1998, when Arsenal won the double, Wenger's team seem to have hit their stride at the right moment. Recent wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Newcastle were achieved with an irresistible mix of flair, fluidity and efficiency. Fulham, too, were taken apart. "Everything was perfect," says Dennis Bergkamp.
Perfect is a little-used word in sport and Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Derby was far from flawless, but still notable. For the first time since August, Arsenal kept a clean sheet at Highbury in the Premiership.
In mid-December the only trebles talked about by Arsenal supporters were those poured to drown their sorrows. Their team had lost to Newcastle at Highbury, where points had been squandered against Charlton, Blackburn and Bolton. A 17-game unbeaten run in all competitions later, Wenger knows the turning point.
"I would say winning at Liverpool [five days after the Newcastle defeat] because if we had lost that it would have completely changed the season. The team has got better from game to game. We are closer, there is more belief, the attitude is stronger and we feel it's a moment of truth. When a team clicks like this on a common vision and common goal they become stronger."
Indiscipline could cost Arsenal, who have lost Thierry Henry for three matches starting today at Newcastle in the FA Cup and seem likely to be without Patrick Vieira for a similar period after an incident at Chelsea. He will hear his fate at an FA disciplinary hearing next week. Yet they have not lost in the league this season when Henry or Vieira has been absent. Strength in the face of adversity has been joined by scintillating style.
It is not just the individual brilliance, such as Bergkamp's strike at Newcastle. The speed with which Arsenal spring from defence and the moves that brought goals against Fulham and Leverkusen tell of a team operating on a rare wavelength.
Robert Pires's transformation is well known, Henry's gifts as plain as ever. Crucially, Vieira has returned to his domineering best, Sylvain Wiltord has covered well for Freddie Ljungberg in midfield and Bergkamp is producing his finest form for two years."
The teams understanding is impressive. "We know each other so well that sometimes we don't even have to look, we just pass the ball," Henry says. "We are all moving at the same time, trying to keep the ball travelling quickly. It takes time to develop an understanding like that but it is definitely coming."
They are confident, too, that things are solid at the back. It is no surprise Arsenal's best form has coincided with Sol Campbell's growing conviction and David Seaman's return last month. Seaman's presence and Lee Dixon's reappearance have been essential, given that Arsenal are without Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Matthew Upson, Ashley Cole and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Stand-ins such as Igors Stepanovs, Oleg Luzhny and, in midfield, Gilles Grimandi have performed admirably.
Wenger knows this squad is better than in 1998 and the players seem determined to ensure the talent is rewarded with a first trophy since then. A single-mindedness shines through, whether it is Henry, Pires and Wiltord desperate to earn their first silverware at Highbury, Campbell keen to silence sniping from Spurs, or Bergkamp, Vieira, Seaman and others bent on ending the barren run.
As Bergkamp says: "If we don't win anything no one will speak of this team and they will always speak of the double team." They are playing for their place in history, to be remembered like the Brazil of 1970 rather than 1982.
Wenger has said "whoever holds their nerve will win the league", and there is no shortage of mental strength in his dressing-room. It includes world and European champions, double winners and, in Adams and Dixon, players who took the title at Liverpool 13 years ago.
Wenger leaves nothing to chance. He deals in black and white and seeks to bring his team to the boil at the key time. In the 1997-98 season Arsenal earned 12 more points in the second half of the season than the first; in 1998-99 14 more as United won the title by a point.
"Physically we always feel better in those months than at the beginning of the season," Bergkamp says. "It seems we can always find something technically or physically more than the side we are playing."
The Champions League will surely elude Arsenal unless they can repeat or improve on the draw in Leverkusen which followed six away defeats in a row. The title, though, is theirs to win, and the game at Old Trafford on April 13th looms large.
In 1999 Arsenal went close to a double but ended with nothing, United stealing the show. This time Wenger believes it will be different. "Because of our potential and attitude," he says. "And because it is in our own hands."
ON TELEVISION (today): Newcastle v Arsenal (live on BBC 1, kick-off 5.35 pm)
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