DENVER -- Forty-three seconds. That is how long it took Nathan MacKinnon to score the goal that extended his home points streak to 35 games.

The fact he scored that quickly is a reflection of how MacKinnon is a perpetual threat. That he had a point in every home game entering the March 26 contest with the Montreal Canadiens while simultaneously leading the NHL in points is another way to measure what has made the Colorado Avalanche's superstar center so indomitable this season.

Yet it was the way he scored the goal that offers insight into why this season has been the best and most consistently productive campaign of his 11-year career.

Ever since he first burst into the hockey world's consciousness at age 14, many superlatives have been used to describe MacKinnon's game. Now that he's 28, one word that has been used quite a bit this season is patience. The goal he scored against the Canadiens to keep his streak alive was an example of that patience. Initially, the pass he played to Jonathan Drouin was deflected and appeared to be going out of the zone.

Paying attention to the puck meant nobody had eyes on MacKinnon. He used his surroundings to float in a space in the Canadiens' zone that, with his speed, gave him the runway and time to get back on defense to prevent an odd-skater rush or to be in a position to place his opponents in a compromising spot if the Avs recovered the puck.

What occurred was the latter.

All it took was two passes before Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault was faced with a one-timer from an unmarked MacKinnon that was launched from the right faceoff circle.

This is what MacKinnon's version of patience looks like.

"It's crazy because for me when I watch hockey and when you're a defenseman and you see him come, defensemen are going to sag back because they don't want to get beat wide," Drouin said. "I think that's why he's opened up with his playmaking. He has time to delay and it's because the D are respecting him. It would be too if I were a defenseman."

MacKinnon's home points streak ended two days later against the New York Rangers. He followed that game up by scoring four points in a comeback win against the Nashville Predators that clinched the Avalanche's seventh consecutive playoff berth.

The most points in a season in franchise history. The most points on home ice in a season in franchise history. A home points streak that finished second in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky's 40 games in 1988-89. A pair of 19-game point streaks in the same season, a first in NHL history.

These are more than just statements. These bullet points are ammunition for the questions that have been fired off about MacKinnon as of late. What is it about this season? Exactly what has MacKinnon done to be in position to have the best individual campaign of his career?

And, could this be the year MacKinnon finally wins the Hart Trophy that has tantalizingly eluded him?

"It's just been a lot of work, I think, and there's new things I just try to get better at," MacKinnon said. "Also, I've been healthy so far. Knock on wood. Every year it seems like I get hurt and hopefully that doesn't happen. I feel great. My body's good. My mind's good and things are just going my way for whatever reason."

THERE IS NO question MacKinnon is the finished product. What that product is, however, is still a bit of a question. Is he a pure goal scorer? A playmaker? A power forward? Or is it that he's all three at once, sometimes on the same shift?

MacKinnon had a moment in that game against the Canadiens when his multiple attributes were on display in a single shift. Upon entering the zone, MacKinnon had Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson immediately in front of him. He deked the puck between Matheson's legs before Kaiden Guhle came over to help by trying to poke the puck away. That's when MacKinnon deftly lifted his stick and let the puck slide past Guhle before firing a backhanded shot on net.

The Ball Arena crowd's reaction to his latest trademark moment gave MacKinnon, who already has a few nicknames, a new one in "The Wizard of Ahhs."

"I think it is tough to describe him because he can do all these things," Avalanche right winger Mikko Rantanen said. "He's a shooter. He can be a playmaker. He has a lot of goals, but he also has almost 80 assists or something like that. I can't even describe one type of player. He does all of it, which is nice."

Zach Parise had another way to describe MacKinnon.

"A freak. That's what he is," Parise said.

Parise's nine years with the Minnesota Wild allowed him to witness MacKinnon's evolution from rookie to budding star to one of the NHL's top players. After all those years playing against MacKinnon, now he knows what it's like to play with him.

"I remember coming into this building and being matched against their line," Parise said. "And after the eighth shift of getting hemmed in your zone, you're just like, 'My God.' I remember joking and I think it was to [Gabriel Landeskog]. I just jokingly said, 'Will you stop? Will you stop coming on the ice against me?!?' It was like every shift, those guys are flying down the zone and I can't even breathe out here. It was tough. It was just like a different level."

Parise said Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby was the standard as the NHL's best player for several years. Over time, players such as the Edmonton Oilers' duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov could be included in that discussion.

Parise believed MacKinnon already was in that stratosphere before joining the Avs. But seeing him every day in practice instead of just the four annual regular-season Avs-Wild games gave Parise a greater appreciation for what MacKinnon was doing.

"There's not a lot of guys that bring everything to the table, but bring it every game," Parise said. "That's what's impressed me the most. I think it's been contagious throughout the whole locker room, but it starts up top with him, Cale [Makar] and Mikko."

Details are everything for elite athletes in any sport, and MacKinnon is no different.

A massive NBA fan, MacKinnon talked about how he listened to LeBron James' new podcast and the biggest item that stuck with him was how the Los Angeles Lakers superstar stressed the need to go all-in on every aspect of one's game.

MacKinnon was already that way. He's arguably the NHL's most well-known martinet when it comes to how seriously he takes nutrition. He has a performance rehabilitation specialist whom he credits with shaping his body. He appreciates rest to the point where there are nights when he's in bed reading a book and falls asleep before 10 p.m.

He even applies this to morning skates and practices. It's not enough that he's practicing. He's usually one of the first skaters on the ice and one of the last players to leave the facility. Even at practice, there are players who go through drills at gradual paces, whereas MacKinnon's settings are seemingly only fast and even faster.

Pregame warmups are no different. MacKinnon goes through his individual routines as if there were someone with a clipboard and a stopwatch grading his performance.

MacKinnon's need to be the best is the opening Avalanche coach Jared Bednar used to have a discussion with him about applying that commitment into the defensive side of his game. Bednar's point to MacKinnon was that being a well-rounded forward who can check another team's top line is only going to lead to more opportunities to regain possession.

"He has the ability, right? The quickness, the size, the strength, the smarts to be able to check," Bednar said. "Really, the thing we try to sell to our team is the better we check, the more we are going to have the puck and the more we get to play with the puck and be dangerous offensively. That's the sole purpose of checking the right way. Not just to keep the puck out of your net but to go create at the other end."

Being a consistent two-way player has led to MacKinnon being trusted with so many defensive zone faceoffs that his statistics are in the neighborhood of venerable two-way centers such as Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, Sam Reinhart and even Crosby, per Natural Stat Trick.

"With Bedsy, he's always pushing me to be the best I can," MacKinnon said. "Even this season, a lot has been going on obviously. But there's things we talk about every day whether it is 6-on-5 coverage or 5-on-5 coverage. Tracking, reloading, things like that. I'm definitely open to hear his opinion. I think he's a great coach who's always making me better for sure."

IT'S BEEN 18 months since MacKinnon's last Instagram post, while his most recent post on X came back in 2018, when it was still called Twitter.

"I'm not trying to be the cool guy on Instagram showing off different things," he said. "I just want to be known for my hard work and dedication to the game."

MacKinnon has no idea what's being said about him, the season he's having or if he and the Avs can win a second Stanley Cup in three seasons.

But to suggest MacKinnon doesn't pay attention to the world around him would be inaccurate -- because he does. Especially when the conversation turns to what happened at the NHL All-Star Game back in February. More specifically, when he and Crosby posed for a picture with Justin Bieber.

Bieber stood between Crosby and MacKinnon with the pop star leaning closer to Crosby. The running joke on social media was that Bieber was going to crop MacKinnon out of the photo.

And then the joke became reality. Bieber posted several pictures from All-Star Weekend, including one of just him and Crosby, with the only vestige of MacKinnon being his right shoulder and his No. 29.

Others noticed. The most-liked comment on Bieber's feed was about MacKinnon, with someone writing, "damn mackinnon got the crop." It led to several responses ranging from, "what'd he ever do to you justin" to "i'm not even an avs fan and this hurts me lol."

Another person chimed in to say, "but I mean ... It's Crosby ..." followed by someone else stating "but its also mackinnon. Who eventually will be a hall of famer."

So what does MacKinnon think of all this?

"Yeah, I don't blame him," MacKinnon said with a smile. "It's Sidney Crosby! He's an icon! A Canadian icon! I get it. I'm not like a household name. I know that, and that's OK. It's just funny to me. I'm not offended. Justin seemed like a nice guy."

To MacKinnon's point, Crosby is a future Hall of Famer who along with Washington Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin resuscitated the NHL post-lockout. Crosby has won three Stanley Cups, two Hart Trophies and scored a gold medal-winning goal in the Olympics.

Bieber is one of the most popular musicians on the planet. He has 293 million Instagram followers, which would make his fans the fourth-most populous nation in the world behind China, India and the United States. All six of his studio albums went platinum at least once in the U.S. before he turned 30.

Still, it's not like MacKinnon isn't accomplished. He's also a Stanley Cup champion who could win more before his career ends. He's a seven-time NHL All-Star who has two 100-point seasons and has been in the top six of Hart Trophy voting five of the past six seasons -- and he could potentially win the award as NHL MVP this season.

Everything he does on the ice is inescapable. MacKinnon is among those players who has become appointment viewing, whether it's because someone wants to watching the Avs or checking out social media just to MacKinnon's latest highlight. From his neutral zone entries to his goals to his assists to just the pureness of his technical ability as a skater have helped him become more of a topic of conversation over the years.

From MacKinnon's perspective, life is good. Being in Denver means he can walk his new dog, a 25-pound Cavapoo. He had a German Shepherd named Cox that he loved so much that Cox was the logo for his fantasy football team. But Cox required more attention than MacKinnon could provide and now lives with MacKinnon's parents. MacKinnon smiles when admitting that his new dog used to travel by bag when she was smaller, but now they go on walks to coffee shops and other places.

Living in a place where he's not the most famous person allows MacKinnon to go to the grocery store in peace. He can wear a hat, a hoodie and joggers with nobody doing a double-take to ask, "Was that Nathan MacKinnon?" It makes him laugh to know that he blends in with everyone else even though he's one of the best in the world at his profession.

"I guess I just don't think about myself like that," MacKinnon said. "I just don't. I can't control what people think and we're not in the biggest market ever and I'm not posting a lot. I don't know. I'm just living my life. I love my life and I like my privacy, I guess."

ON SATURDAY, McDAVID authored a three-point game that had everyone talking about his Hart Trophy odds. Come Wednesday, that conversation shifted to Kucherov being the Hart favorite because he just had a three-point game. Only for MacKinnon to score three points the next night, opening the debate all over again.

This exact scenario also happened between March 30 and April 4.

This year's Hart Trophy race is one of the tightest in years.

Lately, the Hart voting has been largely uncompetitive. McDavid captured the Hart last season by receiving 99.54% of the first-place votes. In 2021-22, Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews had more than 61% of the first-place votes, and McDavid was a unanimous choice in 2020-21.

The most recent close race came in 2019-20, when Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl garnered 53.5% of the first-place votes and 77% of the possible total points. The player who finished second received 28.2% of first-place votes and 68.35% of the possible total points.

That was MacKinnon.

Even when Kucherov won in 2018-19, he was almost a unanimous selection. He received 95.9% of the first-place votes.

In 2017-18, then-New Jersey Devils winger Taylor Hall won the Hart with 1,264 points (77% of the possible total points) with the next-closest vote-getter receiving 1,194 points (72.8%).

Again, the runner-up was MacKinnon.

Could it be that way again this year? Or is this the year MacKinnon finally wins the Hart?

Strong cases can be made for multiple players. Kucherov remained the constant for a Lightning team that struggled at times but is in the playoffs for the sixth straight season. He had four months in which he scored more than 20 points.

McDavid was crucial to the Oilers overcoming a slow start that saw them lose eight of their first 11 games before a coaching change was made. Since then, the game's most dominant player has showed his ability to create for others is just as dangerous as his scoring ability as he became just the fourth player in NHL history to finish with 100 assists in a season with Kucherov later joining him as the fifth player to reach the century mark in assists.

That's not even accounting for what New York Rangers star winger Artemi Panarin has done to help his team finish as the top seed in the East. Or the fact Matthews not only lead the NHL in goals (69) and entered the final game of the regular season with a chance to become the eighth player ever to score 70 goals in a season.

An argument could be made for what David Pastrnak has done to provide stability to a Boston Bruins team that faced questions without Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.

And with the Penguins in contention right until the end of the season, some have said Crosby should at least be in the discussion.

MacKinnon told ESPN last year that one of the things he learned as a two-time Hart runner-up was to not be consumed with how others voted. Having that mentality has led to MacKinnon taking a more relaxed approach whenever he's asked if this could be his year.

Especially with MacKinnon being serenaded with "MVP!" chants at Ball Arena going back to January.

"I want to be the best I can be, but I just truly can't control who votes for me," MacKinnon said when asked about the Hart Trophy. "I've been in this position before and it hasn't gone my way, I guess. Everyone has their opinion and the things they like. It is what it is.

"Obviously, winning a Cup is the most important thing to me and that's what drives me. I don't think an individual award could drive me to the way I am. There's such amazing players in this league that to be in the conversation -- that's great, but we'll see."

A late goal by striker Arkadiusz Milik -- assisted by United States attacker Timothy Weah -- sent Juventus into the final of Coppa Italia with a 3-2 aggregate win over Lazio despite a 2-1 defeat in the second leg of their semi-final on Tuesday.

Juventus beat Lazio 2-0 at home in the first leg but forward Valentín Castellanos levelled the tie when he scored twice by the 48th minute, before substitute Milik netted the decider from close range seven minutes from time.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Record 14-times winners Juventus, who lifted their last trophy to date when they won the Italian Cup in 2020-21, have reached their 22nd Coppa Italia final.

"Lazio had to turn the game around, it was normal to expect aggression," Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri told a press conference. "After the 2-0 at the start of the second half we improved and we got the result against an excellent Lazio. [But] we should have scored first.

"Today was an important match. Our elimination would have led to a dangerous psychological repercussion given that we are not yet mathematically [qualified for] the Champions League."

Lazio were quick to revive the fans' hopes for a turnaround from the first leg's deficit when Castellanos outjumped the Juve defence to give the hosts the lead on the night with a towering header in the 12th minute, nodding home a Luis Alberto corner.

He could have scored the second just before half-time, when he broke into the area after latching on to another neat pass by Alberto, but Juve keeper Mattia Perin kept his low shot out.

However, Castellanos made no mistake after the break when Alberto teed him up just outside the box and the Argentine sent the ball low past Perin and into the net to level the tie.

That shook Juventus up and Dusan Vlahovic had two close chances soon after, before Milik struck from point-blank range to book the spot in the final.

Filip Kostic sent a long cross from the left and across the face of the goal for Weah, who squared the ball to Milik and the Poland striker finished with a tap-in two minutes after entering the pitch.

Atalanta host Fiorentina in the other semifinal on Wednesday after the Viola earned a 1-0 advantage in the first leg.

The final will be played at Stadio Olimpico on May 15.

Liverpool have identified Feyenoord coach Arne Slot as a leading candidate to succeed Jurgen Klopp as manager after cooling their interest in Sporting CP coach Ruben Amorim, sources have told ESPN.

With top target Xabi Alonso last month ruling himself out of the running for a return to the club he represented as a player by choosing to stay with newly crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen, Slot has emerged ahead of Amorim and Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi in the race to replace Klopp.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

However, sources have said that Liverpool expect a battle with Barcelona and Bayern Munich to appoint Slot and are therefore planning to continue to assess other candidates.

Klopp, who has won the Champions League and Premier League with Liverpool since replacing Brendan Rodgers at Anfield in October 2015, announced in January that he will step down from his position at the end of this season.

Following Klopp's surprise announcement -- the 56-year-old informed Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG) of his decision last November -- Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan said that the club would take a "data-led" approach to finding a new manager.

Former sporting director Michael Edwards returned to Anfield last month as head of football operations with the responsibility of identifying and hiring Klopp's successor, and sources have told ESPN that Slot, who guided Feyenoord to the Dutch title last season, has become a strong contender to land the Liverpool job.

Slot, 45, rejected Premier League advances from both Chelsea and Tottenham last season in order to remain at Feyenoord. He signed a new three-year contract with the Rotterdam-based team in May 2023, thereby committing himself to the club until 2026.

Sources have told ESPN that the Liverpool hierarchy, led by Edwards and Hogan, believes that Slot fits all of its criteria in terms of style of play, personality and ability to work within the club's structure.

There is an acceptance within Anfield that Feyenoord will attempt to hold onto Slot, but there is also a hope that the lure of the Premier League could prompt the former AZ Alkmaar coach to take the opportunity to move to England.

Liverpool are second in the Premier League, level on points with leaders Arsenal, and face a derby clash against Merseyside rivals Everton at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

AC Milan striker Olivier Giroud has signed a deal to join LAFC from mid-July until December 2025 as a designated player, a source confirmed to ESPN.

After weeks of negotiations and despite other offers from Saudi Arabia and Europe, the former Arsenal and Chelsea No. 9 decided to sign for LAFC on a contract of around 3 million ($3.2m) a year. He met with John Thorrington, the LAFC co-president, in Milan to sign his contract, with Giroud looking forward to a new chapter in his career in Los Angeles with the 2022 MLS champion.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, NWSL more (U.S.)

Giroud, 37, will join his friend and France 2018 World Cup-winning teammate Hugo Lloris, who signed for LAFC in the winter transfer window.

He has scored 13 goals and provided 8 assists in 30 games in Série A with Milan so far this season and is still part of Didier Deschamps' France squad. Giroud owns the record for the most goals scored for the French national team (57 in 131 caps).

He will move to LA after taking part in Euro 2024 in Germany where Les Bleus are heavy favoritesd for the title.

The news of Giroud signing his contract with LAFC was first reported by Fabrizio Romano.

MLS will be Giroud's sixth different league in his career after starting in the National (3rd division), Ligue 2 and Ligue 1 in France with Grenoble, Istres, Tours and Montpellier, where he won the French title in 2012.

He then moved to the Premier League in England, first with Arsenal, where he won three FA Cups, and then Chelsea, where he lifted the Champions League, the Europa League and the FA Cup. He joined Milan in 2021, winning the Serie A title in his first season.

Giroud has been a reliable goalscorer at club level, netting 276 times in a career that has spanned nearly 700 league and cup appearances.

He was part of France's World Cup-winning side in 2018, playing in all seven matches. Giroud also represented France at two other World Cups and three European Championships.

LAFC has reached the MLS Cup in the past two seasons, defeating the Philadelphia Union in the final in 2022 before losing to the Columbus Crew in 2023.

The club has plenty of roster flexibility heading into the summer, with two designated player spots currently open.

After nine games of the 2024 season, LAFC sits in seventh place in the Western Conference with a 3-3-3 record. Giroud will bolster an attack that also includes 2023 MLS golden boot winner Denis Bouanga.

Mauricio Pochettino admitted Chelsea "gave up" in Tuesday's 5-0 thrashing at Arsenal, but sought to defend his players by insisting some of the game's greats had similar off days.

Leandro Trossard's fourth-minute strike opened the scoring before four goals in 18 second-half minutes -- two each from Ben White and Kai Havertz -- condemned the Blues to their heaviest defeat in a London derby since March 1986.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

"We talked at half-time about how it is not possible to start the game like this," Pochettino said. "But we started [the second half] in a bad way again. We conceded two goals and in this moment, the team gave up. We were not in the game."

Asked whether that capitulation made him question the character of some of his players, Pochettino continued: "No, it is not the character.

"I played football and I was in some similar situations with big players, experienced players. I played with [Diego] Maradona, I played with Ronaldinho, I played with [Gabriel] Batistuta. In some part of the season, these type of things can happen and you say 'yes, these guys that were at the top, give up.'

"Sometimes because of the opponent, because of our energy, because nothing is for you in this situation and you cannot find anything positive during the game and this type of thing happens. It will happen for sure with different teams."

While Arsenal moved four points clear of Manchester City at the top of table having played two games more -- with Liverpool sandwiched between them in second place -- Chelsea face a scramble to qualify for Europe after suffering their 11th defeat of the season.

"We are capable of having an amazing performance and three days after, we show the extremes," Pochettino added. "Our standards are not sustained for the bad days. When we have bad days, we are so bad. When we are good, we are capable of everything. It is another thing we need to be aware that we need to increase for the future."

Arteta had previously described Pochettino as a "father figure" dating back to their time together as players at Paris Saint-Germain and he said: "[I have] all the sympathy in the world, with everything that he's been through and everything that he's been doing. He knows that.

"I've been on the other side as well. He's doing a great job, I think when you look at this team and analyse every second of them, they deserve to win many matches, they deserve to win against big teams.

"He's doing a really good job so hopefully things will turn around and be as he deserves."

Chelsea are away to Aston Villa on Saturday, while Arsenal play north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

"We have to do our job. Now we have to wait and see [for Liverpool and Manchester City's results)," Arteta said. "We have a lot of games coming up. Let's enjoy tonight and let's go back to work."

LONDON -- What should embarrass Chelsea most is Arsenal are everything that they are not. Tuesday's 5-0 thrashing at Emirates Stadium showcased the Gunners' shrewd spending and stylish structure, a combination which threatens to push Manchester City the distance in the Premier League title race.

Mikel Arteta's side have played two games more but they are now four points clear of third-placed City with Liverpool sandwiched in the middle, at least until City visit Brighton on Thursday. The Gunners can still dream.

For Chelsea, the nightmare is real. Tuesday night's match rapidly descended into the sort of performance that gets managers the sack. Leandro Trossard opened the scoring after four minutes before a strange first half concluded without any further scoring despite both sides threatening regularly to find the net. Then came four goals in 18 minutes, two from Ben White and two from Kai Havertz, as Chelsea capitulated in humiliating fashion.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

"I don't want your shirt, I want you to fight for ours," read a banner held up by a youngster in the away end. His plea went unanswered. Trossard and Havertz are examples that put Chelsea's 1 billion transfer strategy in an embarrassing light.

Arsenal moved for Trossard in January 2023 after Chelsea trumped them in the race to sign Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk. He cost 27m compared to the 88.5m outlay for Mudryk. And in amongst their lavish spending spree, Chelsea last summer allowed Havertz to join Arsenal in a move worth around 67.5m.

It was a fee that looked respectable at the time, but the German's improvement with his new club reflects both the stability and culture at Arsenal compared with the turbulence and toxicity of his former club.

Havertz still has something to prove in delivering consistently in the biggest games, but he is showing more as a player than Chelsea were ever able to coax out of him. There is a degree of fortune he has thrived as a No.9 given the plan to use him initially as a No.8 or out wide, but this is where the positive environment and team structure encourages individuals to find the best of themselves.

Chelsea, by contrast, are a mess. There is mitigation for manager Mauricio Pochettino in terms of injuries, a back four thrown together at short notice and the absence of their outstanding player -- Cole Palmer -- but there are surely certain non-negotiables, and the Argentine made the startling admission that his team gave up, followed by a defence of that lack of application.

"We talked at half-time about how it is not possible to start the game like this," Pochettino said. "But we started [the second half] in a bad way again. We conceded two goals and in this moment, the team gave up. We were not in the game."

But does that not lead him to question their character?

"No, it is not the character," he continued. "I played football and I was in some similar situations with big players, experienced players. I played with [Diego] Maradona, I played with Ronaldinho, I played with [Gabriel] Batistuta. In some part of the season, these types of things can happen and you say: 'Yes, these guys that were at the top, give up.'

"Sometimes because of the opponent, because of our energy because nothing is for you in this situation and you cannot find nothing positive during the game and this type of thing happens. It will happen for sure with different teams."

It doesn't happen with Arsenal these days. The Gunners recorded their biggest-ever victory against Chelsea across all competitions while this was the Blues' heaviest defeat in a London derby since losing 6-0 to Queens Park Rangers in March 1986. It was achieved with the midfield trio of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard -- deployed for the first time since August's Community Shield -- and the latter in particular put in a stunning individual display, executing a range of passing few players in the world can match.

Arsenal's response to exiting the Champions League at Bayern Munich last week has been undeniably impressive.

"What these boys have done in the last 10 days is unbelievable, physically," Arteta said. "When you look at some of the numbers, it's unreal but they can do it and they can improve themselves because they want to. They have the mentality that they really want to win it."

Pochettino was right to point out the patience Arsenal showed in sticking with Arteta through a difficult spell after he won the 2020 FA Cup against Chelsea and the fact they are much further along in their evolution under the Spaniard's guidance. But the 1 billion outlay accelerates judgements and the time frame for success. Chelsea's alarming inconsistency reflects badly on their manager.

"We are capable of having an amazing performance and three days after, we show the extremes," Pochettino said. "Our standards are not sustained for the bad days. When we have bad days, we are so bad. When we are good, we are capable of everything. It is another thing we need to be aware that we need to increase for the future."

The gulf between these two sides right now is huge and while Arteta can revel in the limelight, the shadow over Pochettino grows ever darker.