There are four London-born players on the 30-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or, and three of them will be on the pitch when Arsenal meet Atalanta in northern Italy on Thursday night. You can probably guess two quite easily: Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice are among the most recognisable faces in the European game.

Mikel Arteta had promised that this week would be the acid test of how much Arsenal have improved this season and, on the evidence of this scrappy performance, they still have plenty to work on. But after overcoming the first hurdle against Tottenham on ...