Football is an enchanting place of consummation and beauty, bewilderment and ingenuity, set in a theatre of preposterous boundaries.

Gone are the days when the purist football fan would wait till the evening programme of Match of the Day to see if his or her team had won their weekend fixture, holding the pools coupon tightly in their hand. Banished are the mullets, indecorous away kits and the ferocious battling games of your Chopper Harris’ and Billy Bonds’ of yesteryear. In are the tattoos, respect you ref’ campaigns and designer sportswear/sports cars of current day.

Football is no more a game of tough tackling and raucous passion but one of artistic flair and indulging tactical brilliance. It is now an expression of beauty, played out by eleven players whose job it is to entertain and get winning results.

Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort”. There is one team that stands out from all others in football, a team that encapsulates Van Gogh’s words and delights the watching public with an enthralling, exuberant and inventive style of play: Arsene Wengers Arsenal.

The match against fellow title rivals Manchester United at the weekend was, in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson, a game of ‘fantasy football’ played in front of a global audience of some 100 million or so. They followed it up three days later with a 3-0 victory over Wigan; an Arsenal side filled with youngsters destroying a near full strength fellow Premiership team.

What makes this such interesting reading is that a week ago, for the first time in his managerial rein at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger was under criticism from certain sections of the Arsenal faithful. The media too stuck their two bobs worth in describing Arsene as a manager who, for the first time in 12 years, might be losing his aura around the red part of North London

Harold Wilson once said “A week is a long time in politics”, well, on this hearing, a week is a long time in football too. Had Arsenal lost at the weekend, all and sundry would have casted them in the bucket of also ran’s, a group of has been’s whose ideologies have succumb to the testament of discipline and tactical ingenuity of their fellow rivals. However, the result at the weekend was an indication that showed us all - Wenger is far from finished and so too are Arsenal. At times on Saturday lunch time it was a sheer joy to watch, how many times were Manchester United exposed at the back? The answer was countless. I have never seen a team dance round United with such ease, in such fashion. The Gunners are a team that simply ooze the very skills that modern day footballers strive to achieve.

Arsenal play an expansive brand of football where every member of their team is confident on the ball. They pass and move in triangles, dropping off to create space and sit in positions that are uncomfortable to defend against as they are to pick up. The kids from last night also showed the Arsene school of thought: Intricate passing, quick bursts of pace and a type of movement that comes right out of the Thierry Henry Model.

Against Stoke and Fenerbache, Arsenal looked like a Picasso painting; disjointed, obscure and lacking in the type of shaping that teams at the top must show to win such games. Against Manchester United and Wigan, Arsenal were very much a sight from a Van Gogh canvas; beautiful, energetic and inspiring – the ingredients needed to create a work of art.

This is what Arsenal have become these days, a work of Art. With Wenger as the conductor and William Gallas and Cesc Fabregas as part of his string quartet, they play music like no other. They are the Luciano Pavarotti of the footballing world with the rest of the Premiership as the support act.

I salute Wenger and his football ethos; I admire his style and brand of play and applaud his philosophies on the beautiful game. Yet there is a question in the back of my mind that keeps on coming to the fore. Can Arsenal win the major Honours? On the evidence of their last two performances of course they can. They have shown us that they have untold ability, a willingness and hunger to win – the problem is, they have weaknesses too.

What about the evidence against Stoke, against Sunderland and against Fulham. Although we can marvel at the victories we must frown upon the inept performances as well. Do they have the consistency to last the pace this year? Can they stop silly defeats against Hull and Stoke? And do they have the backbone to grind out those priceless victories in the up n’ coming winter months.

Three league defeats by mid November is not championship winning form by any stretch of the imagination, but they are still up their in the hunt. They know that they cannot afford any more slip ups this side of Christmas. Chelsea and Liverpool will not drop too many points from now until then. Arsenal, in the mean time, will want to cement their position behind the front two especially with United being whisked off to foreign shores to play the World Club Championship.

The league title might just be beyond them this year, but try telling that to Arsene Wenger. Last week, the American Presidential race showed us something very poignant and very important; Belief is everything. It is new President elect Barack Obama that has instilled hope to the American public. Mr Obama, with the eyes of the world fixated upon him as he stood on stage in Chicago, showed the world and a nation, that anything is possible, you’ve just got to believe in yourself and others around you. This is the same rhetoric Arsene Wenger will use on his team – “The Audacity Of Hope” as quoted by Mr Obama himself is never too far away. The last two Arsenal results have given the team from The Emirates that very hope – the audacity to believe.

Only time will tell what will become of this Arsenal side. One thing, however, is for certain, this Arsenal side under the stewardship of Arsene Wenger is a team that excites and entertains, that captivates and enriches and makes the Premiership a better place for it: Thank you Mr Wenger, League title or no league title.