Have Arsenal ever been like this in the Emirates era?

The scenes at full-time of the 1-0 win over Aston Villa have been chastised and cherished in equal measure. On the one hand Arsenal are embarrassingly overzealous at beating a mid-table team, while on the other it’s a unmistakably normal expression of basic human emotion and recognition of progress.

Without delving into the celebration police garbage that’s been spewed from Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor’s mouths, let’s look at it from a different angle: have Arsenal ever been like unified at any point during the Emirates era?

Young is interestingly linked in this. He was part of the Villa side that also lost 1-0 at Villa Park against Arsenal in the first Premier League season the club spent at the Emirates Stadium. But between those dates, has there ever been this strong of a connection between the fans and team?

You would argue that there really hasn’t.

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Have Arsenal ever been like this in the Emirates era? The bond between the players and the fans is unlike any seen since Highbury

Banding around Bernd Leno keeping a clean sheet on his first league appearance since August and then carrying those celebrations over to the 3,000 travelling fans – many of whom had woken up at 4:30 in the morning and spent over £100 quid to make the journey up to Birmingham for a lunchtime kick-off – is a touching moment at the end of a hard fought victory.

But it’s more than that. Victory away from home is always a special occasion and the dedicated away following deserve appreciation, yet this connection, one that gives you goosebumps and makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, is palpable.

Watching this bond grow ever tighter, seeing it firsthand and being part of it, is a connection that has not been powerful across the past 16 years. At no point since the Emirates opened has it felt like this. It’s truly, heartwarmingly special.

To have this level of relationship when the club have just come off the back of successive eighth place finishes in the table, started the season worse than most will have seen in their lifetimes, and are without European football for the first time in a quarter of century, is even more unique.

The bond between players and supporters hasn’t been like this since Highbury. The Emirates Stadium hasn’t been as electric, enthused and boisterous as it has been this season. Everyone, from terraces to turf, is intertwined and committed: we’re behind you, and you’re behind us.

Credit to the recruitment, credit to the players, credit to the club, and credit to the manager. Because this is something to savour, and something to build on.

It’s beautiful.