Arsenal are best team in the world, and convincing win over Bayern Munich was just latest piece of evidence

LONDON -- You don't have to believe the bookmakers' odds. You can plead ignorance to Elo ratings. You might even choose to skip over all the tables that rank teams by how good they are at accruing points from football matches. You cannot, however, avoid the evidence that is clear to see in front of your eyes.

Arsenal are the best team in the world right now. Of course they are. They've just done what the best team in Europe does, grinding one of their leading rivals into submission. Bayern Munich were lucky to only have three hung on them. Their goal, which was shaping up to be a consolation within 10 minutes of its scoring, required them to enact by far the most impressive attacking move of the match.

A team who've just won on the road to the European champions routinely needed moments of peerless individual brilliance or a move where every component touch and player was 90th percentile. That was just to get into the penalty area. Bayern ended this game with their customary 60% possession. They also ended with nine touches in the Arsenal box. Harry Kane, whose presence only became apparent when the Emirates Stadium serenaded him, ended this game with fewer penalty box touches than Jurrien Timber.

Bayern tried a lot and a lot of it was unsuccessful. Take the period before their out-of-the-blue equalizer, when Vincent Kompany appeared to conclude that his side just weren't going to get the better of their opponents in one-on-one duels. And so their positioning went deliberately haywire for a few passages. No matter when Konrad Laimer started moonlighting upfront or Kane did the whole England at a major tournament trick of abandoning the frontline. If Bukayo Saka had to play center back then Bukayo Saka played center back. William Saliba would charge forward and why not? He was as well off winning the ball in the Bayern third as Arsenal's.

"Individually, we were immense to resolve all the challenges that this team brings to the table," said Arteta. "The energy that we created in the stadium, what the team transmits, the energy that we bring, the quality that we play with: it's incredible. We have to maintain that because it's still very early."

Right the way through this game, the Arsenal machine was operating at peak efficiency. They have long since adapted to life without a center forward, on this occasion, rather than exploiting Mikel Merino's box-crashing qualities, they let him step back closer to Eberechi Eze and the indomitable triple pivot of Martin Zubimendi and two Declan Rices (wait, what?). Arteta wasn't looking to control possession, his side could control the positioning of Bayern even when they didn't have the ball at their feet. The center backs moved up and that created angles for the Gunners' wide men to fly into.

That was what was so remarkable about this game. You wouldn't quite call it an off-finishing night from the hosts, who got three goals from 12 shots worth 2.72 xG, but they could have had more. Leandro Trossard's lob shot-cross produced nothing from a prime position. Had Eze shot when he passed in the first half, he might well have had a goal to follow up his derby hat trick. Even on an off night, Saka snapped on the heels of Bayern defenders, nearly forcing more than one prime shooting opportunity.

This was the best Arsenal have been in Arteta's tenure. Usually when a team reaches this level, everything has broken their way. They are not, for instance, down to their last Gabriel -- both Magalhaes and Jesus still working their way back to fitness. They have not played their last four and a half games without any center forward. Their captain, the technical heartbeat of their team, has played more than 266 minutes. The best team in the world doesn't lose its form attacker before half time and rip Bayern Munich to pieces. And yet here Arsenal were, having to adapt to the early exit of Trossard. No trouble, his replacement Noni Madueke delivered his first goal in the second half. 

This team may only just be emerging from a sustained run of difficulty with injuries but Arteta still has the strength in depth to turn the game, Riccardo Calafiori delivering the assist for Madueke with his first touch before fellow substitute Martinelli beat Manuel Neuer to Eze's ball over the top and tapped in. Now, of course, Bayern had selection issues of their own, a suspended Luis Diaz and injuries to Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala, but Kompany has not been bequeathed the strength in depth that Arteta has.

The Arsenal boss would doubtless rather park the warm notices he and his players get. His press conference was notably taciturn for a man who has blitzed an opponent he labelled "the best team in Europe." He would have no truck with questions as to what that made the side who just beat them. Kompany reflected why his counterpart was so taciturn. 

"Mikel won't mind if I say, we had this discussion when we played PSG three or four weeks ago. I don't think any of us want to be the best team in November," he said. 

Perhaps in six months' time the status quo will have changed. Plug better fullbacks into the Bayern XI, not least a full fit Davies, and they could become a better defensive force. If Paris Saint-Germain find the fitness they had in the last run in, then they will not fear Arsenal.

As Arteta himself put it, this is "just the beginning." That might be an attempt to dampen expectations, but unfortunately for him, it might only serve to raise them. Right now, Arsenal are the best in the field. And they're only just getting started.