Despite losing to Everton last weekend, Arsenal are five points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a game in hand on second-placed Manchester City.

Kaya Kaynak, chief Arsenal writer for football.london, provides the expert view ahead of Brentford’s trip across the capital.

What have you made of the last few months?

Since the last Brentford game, Arsenal have found another level. At that time, there were questions asked as to whether they could challenge against the ‘bigger’ teams. They had a fortunate start to the season in terms of the fixture list and the fact their first meeting with Manchester City was postponed because of the Queen’s passing and then the Europa League.

They were doing well around that time, but they had lost their one big game against Manchester United.

Since then, they have gone onto prove themselves, beating Liverpool, Spurs, United and Chelsea.

It has been pretty impressive how Arsenal have gone from a team that were challenging for the top four to a team that look like they are in with a real chance of winning the Premier League. That’s been the biggest change, but, if you like, it’s not really been a change, it’s more that the way we look at it has changed; we see their consistency over a much longer period of time now and I think people are really starting to believe they can be title challengers.

Last time Arsenal played Brentford, people were thinking ‘Okay, this is a great run, but when’s it going to end?’ – now it’s a case of how far can they go?

Mikel Arteta’s men are still in the Europa League, but how much will the fact they are out of the FA Cup and League Cup help their title charge?

I think it’s going to help in the sense that Arteta has been very fortunate in that he’s been able to field a similar starting XI for most of the season. Seven players have started every Premier League game this term. That is going to help in terms of the consistency he’s been able to find and the familiarity in the backline, with that [William] Saliba-Gabriel partnership, for example.

In midfield, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka and Martin Odegaard have struck up a decent bond, too.

The thing with Arsenal has always been whether they were only ever one injury from everything falling apart and, so far, they’ve largely been able to get away with that. Gabriel Jesus has been injured, but they have dealt with that by playing Eddie Nketiah.

I guess playing less games means you are less likely to have injuries, so that’s going to be massive for Arsenal. The longer they can afford to keep their first XI on the pitch, the better.

I think January was a great window in the way that they brought in strong back-up players that can bolster the squad, but there is still a clear difference between the starting XI and the players beneath it.

Match Preview: Arsenal v Brentford

Your guide to Emirates Stadium

Ben Burgess: Brentford will relish Arsenal test

Around £50 million was spent by the club in January, with Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior and Jorginho brought in. Following on from what you said, how important were those reinforcements?

For Arsenal, the areas they went into January wanting to strengthen were central midfield, forward and centre-back. With Jesus’ injury, a forward was a priority and I think a midfielder and defender coming in on top of that has now meant they are in a much stronger position in February than they were going into January.

The three signings that have come in don’t automatically improve the starting XI; Kiwior is not going to be taking Gabriel’s place and Trossard is not going to be taking Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli’s starting spot right now, and Jorginho is not going to be replacing Partey. But if one of them does get an injury, there is a very good replacement ready to come in and take over and I think that’s a massive difference for Arsenal because before they were panicking every time a player went down injured.

If you go back to the start of January when they played Newcastle, the only sub they were able to make was Takehiro Tomiyasu on for Ben White, just because they didn’t have any depth on the bench. Now they have more room to breathe and Arteta has more options from the bench.

Which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on?

For this game, given he didn’t play in the previous meeting, I’ll go for Odegaard.

Brentford haven’t had a chance to see in the flesh how good a player he is and many say he is the best player in the Premier League at the minute.

He had an off day at Everton last week, I thought; he was at fault for the goal, didn’t mark his man for a set-piece and didn’t really get into the game. Aside from that, in pretty much every game this season, he’s been pivotal.

Odegaard can control the tempos of a game and he will be able to unpick what I expect will be a tightly packed Brentford defence. He’s a really exciting player.

The stats are never that impressive in terms of goals and assists, but everything he does aside from that, when you see him in the flesh, you really get an idea of just how good a player he is.

How is Arteta likely to set up at the Emirates?

It’s been 4-3-3 this whole season, so I don’t see him changing that.

Even though Arsenal lost last week, I think he’ll stick by the system that has got him five points clear at the top of the league.

The inverted full-backs are going to be big; Oleksandr Zinchenko and White will tuck in and try and overload Brentford in the midfield.

The movement of Saka, Martinelli and Nketiah, with Xhaka supporting the attack and Odegaard picking the locks is going to be massive.

What’s your score prediction?

It’s a tough one because I think Brentford will have watched Arsenal last week and identified set-pieces as a bit of a vulnerability.

I think Brentford will score, but Arsenal will win, so I’m going to say 2-1.