If drawing 1-1 at home to Fulham and losing in the Milk Cup with an understrength team can be described as a blip, then our blip was batted away with that assured win at Wigan.

Nice too that the goals were scored not by one man, but by four. Particularly pleasing too that Gervinho netted one: I think he’s had a big effect on our attacking potency, even if he’s not sunk as many goals as we might have liked – though three league goals in ten starts is hardly a drought, either. He made a huge impact against Fulham (especially when you compare him to the Arsh, whose form remains consistently baffling) and wobbly one-on-one’s aside, I’m not sure we can fault the beginning of his Arsenal career too much.

So we’re creeping stubbornly up the table, with our form guide for the last six league games exactly the same as the leaders, Man City: WWWWDW. Our league form over that period is better than Utd’s, better than Chelsea’s, better than Liverpool’s. The only one grating thing – yes, I am about to moan, though not about Arsenal – is that while we have strung this excellent run together, City & Spurs have maintained theirs. You can’t have it all though.

And while all three of the other English Champions League protagonists sweat it out to stay in the competition this week, we have the luxury of naming a pared-down squad to travel to Greece minus nine fit first-teamers: Szczesny, Ramsey, van Persie, Arteta, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Walcott, Gervinho and Song. I am often sceptical about coming first or second in a Champions League group, but one thing you can never be too pleased about is a breather, especially with the usual sapping Christmas schedule, during which we play five games in 21 days, ho-ho-ho’ing over the horizon.

So all told, things are pretty rosy (for a Monday). Long may it last.