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In a variant on Alan Hansen’s immortal words, one of Arsène Wenger’s favourite refrains concerns young players not knowing how good they are, but those closest to him seem intent on proving him wrong.

After Arsenal moved to the top of the table for the first time in almost three years, the players’ self-belief is soaring. With Chelsea and Manchester United struggling for goals and Liverpool struggling to understand their manager, there appears to be no reason why they cannot stay there.

Even Wenger allowed himself to consider that possibility after this magnificent comeback, as evidence mounts that his young players are ready to translate potential into prizes. In keeping with a man who believes in being endlessly creative, Wenger saw fit to invent a new word, which he feels describes his team’s heady mix of innocence and idealism.

“I’m very excited with this team because - I don’t know if the word exists – they are ‘playerish’,” he said. “They love to play and that is something that you feel from the outside. They’re ahead of schedule and have a certain tactical and technical maturity.

“They just love to play. Even at 2-1 they don’t go to the corner flag, they continue to try to score. There is an extra dynamic in there because the players feel this is the year in which they have to grow old.”

Arsenal’s joie de vivre is enough to make even the most cynical old on-looker feel young again, while they are eradicating the weaknesses that caused them to drop out of the title race almost before it began last season. No longer easily kicked off the park, Wenger’s team are showing an increasing willingness to accept scruffy goals to supplement the spectacular, with stunning late strikes by Cesc Fàbregas and Emmanuel Adebayor balanced by a close-range header by the Togo striker in the 65th minute.

Another important departure is the happy habit they have developed of scoring late on, with eight of their 15 goals this season coming in the last ten minutes. “The boss has told us that in every single game we can score in the 90th or 91st minute,” Adebayor, whose spectacular volley was the last kick of a pulsating match, said. “If we’re 1-0 down, in one minute we can score two goals.”

The most significant development is the absence of stars in a team dripping with star quality, with Thierry Henry’s summer departure to Barcelona liberating his former teammates. As a close friend of the France striker, Adebayor said that Arsenal would have won “4-1 or 5-1” with Henry in their ranks, but Fàbregas offered a greater insight. The Spain midfield player passed his goal tally of four from last season with the 30-yard drive that gave his team the lead in the 80th minute, while the fact that Adebayor has three goals and three other players have scored twice in a handful of games indicates the emergence of greater collective responsibility.

“Thierry was an important player, but now he’s gone we have to play more as a team,” Fàbregas said. “We’re playing more collectively, more as a team, and this is important. We lost a lot of points at the beginning of last season and it was too difficult to come back. We have to keep winning.”

In emerging as an early favourite to win the Footballer of the Year award, Fàbregas has replaced Henry as the player Arsenal cannot do without, with the lack of depth in Wenger’s squad likely to be the main obstacle to a sustained championship challenge. Manuel Almunia did not impress in the absence of Jens Lehmann, being beaten at his near post by a free kick by Gareth Bale as Tottenham Hotspur took an early lead and haring off his line to present Dimitar Berbatov with a golden opportunity to put Spurs 2-0 up only for the striker to miss.

Tottenham created several other chances to expose the weakness at the heart of the Arsenal defence, with Gilberto Silva’s lack of pace making him little more than an emergency centre back, although he is preferable to Phillipe Senderos in the absence of William Gallas.

Wenger believes that there is room for improvement, although with Arsenal’s next four matches against Derby County, West Ham United, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers, they could remain at the summit for some time.

How they rated

Tottenham 1 Bale 15

4-4-2 P Robinson 6 P Chimbonda Y 6 M Dawson 5 Y Kaboul 7 Lee Young Pyo 5 S Malbranque 5 T Huddlestone 7 J Jenas Y 6 G Bale 6 D Berbatov 6 R Keane 6 Substitutes A Lennon 6 (for Bale, 69min), D Bent (for Malbranque, 82) Not used R Cerny, D Zokora, R Rocha

Arsenal 3 Adebayor 65, 90, Fàbregas 80

4-4-2 M Almunia 5 B Sagna Y 6 K Touré 6 Gilberto Silva 6 G Clichy 6 A Hleb Y 7 F Fàbregas 8 M Flamini 6 A Diaby 6 E Adebayor 8 R van Persie 7 Substitutes T Rosicky 6 (for Diaby, 56), Denilson (for Van Persie, 85), A Song (for Hleb, 90) Not used L Fabianski, T Walcott

Referee M Clattenburg

Attendance 36,053