Arsenal are hardly a one-man team but the form and fitness of one man is likely to decide at what stage they enter next season's expanded Champions' League. Dennis Bergkamp could lead them straight into the starting stalls without having to qualify first.
At Upton Park on Saturday Bergkamp was almost back to his best and was enormously influential in reducing West Ham United to a job lot of rusting irons. He scored the first goal in Arsenal's 40 victory and instigated the movements which led to two of the others.
His perception was needlesharp, his passing pin-neat and he was seldom required to operate at anything above a brisk jog. It has taken the Dutchman more than half the season to shake off his post-World Cup torpor and Arsene Wenger feels that part of the reason was the hamstring injury which kept Bergkamp out of the 1998 FA Cup final.
"Because of the injury he went into the World Cup without any preparation," the Arsenal manager explained after Saturday's match. "Physically he wasn't ready. He understands his body well and knows what he needs.
"Maybe I made a mistake when he came back from the World Cup in not giving him more time to get himself right. I still think he can be sharper but he's not far off, perhaps another five or six games."
Because of a one-match ban after five cautions, Bergkamp will miss Arsenal's next league fixture which just happens to be their most important Premiership game of the season so far, the visit to Manchester United on Wednesday week. Wenger knows how crucial his absence could be: "Like all great footballers he's a big-game player."
At Old Trafford, however, Arsenal may find themselves rueing even more the absence of Emmanuel Petit, who is beginning a three-match suspension after being sent off in the FA Cup at Wolves. Petit's ability to combine defensive nous with attacking inspiration continues to underwrite Arsenal's consistency.
If Bergkamp's is a unique talent in attack then Petit is now close to being irreplaceable in midfield. West Ham, out of sorts and out of touch, with too many players lacking confidence and newcomers needing time to settle in, simply could not cope with the dominance of Petit and Patrick Vieira between the penalty areas.
Their manager, Harry Redknapp, felt that for the first half-hour "there was little in the game". Little in it for his team, certainly. Frank Lampard, a good footballer in a trough of form, was partnered in midfield by two recent signings, Marc-Vivien Foe and Scott Minto, neither of whom did much to suggest that they were about to revive West Ham's season.
Eventually, as Arsenal strolled to victory, the West Ham supporters decided that blowing raspberries at Minto would be more satisfying than blowing bubbles. This did not please Redknapp: "If the ball comes to you and everybody's screaming and shouting it's not too easy to play."
In fact, Upton Park, quick to recognise the course the game was likely to take, remained uncharacteristically subdued for most of the afternoon. The last time West Ham had beaten Arsenal at home in the league, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, the Berlin Wall was standing and Nelson Mandela was in jail, and it soon became apparent that this fixture was still rooted in its past.
Arsenal spent 35 minutes being given the ball as West Ham vainly tried to find the pace, length and angle of pass to outwit Petit and Vieira. In the end, they gave up and tried playing the ball long over the top of the French pair, which merely emphasised the authority of the Arsenal centrebacks, Tony Adams and Martin Keown.
Paolo Di Canio, the new arrival from Sheffield Wednesday, made a minimal impact but at least kept his hands off the referee. For Arsenal it was a matter of waiting for Bergkamp's vision and skill to produce a goal. A wonderful through-ball set up Nicolas Anelka after 20 minutes but he missed the target, and when Overmars gathered a return pass from Bergkamp to break clear just past the half-hour Tim Breacker just managed to intercept his shot at the near post.
Then Vieira found Bergkamp in space just over the halfway line and after Foe had been left behind by a subtle change of pace Shaka Hislop was beaten by a rifle shot inside the right-hand post. The contest was all but over on the stroke of half-time when Ray Parlour, released by Bergkamp on the right, found precisely the right angle with his low centre to leave Overmars both a clear shot and time to score from the rebound after Hislop had blocked it.
The introduction of Eyal Berkovic at least gave West Ham an attacking presence in the second half and David Seaman something to do in the Arsenal goal, which included saving a 25-yard drive from the little Israeli.
And, had Seaman not blocked Ian Pearce's shot 10 minutes from the end, West Ham might have come closer to saving the game. Ultimately, however, they were buried in a pauper's grave. Anelka collected Keown's long pass and tricked his way past Pearce to score Arsenal's third goal, and Parlour added a fourth with his first of the season after a shot from Overmars, again set up by Bergkamp, had been blocked on the line by Rio Ferdinand.
West Ham United: Hislop, Breacker (Berkovic 46), Dicks, Ferdinand, Pearce, Foe, Lampard, Minto, Sinclair, Kitson, Di Canio. Subs Not Used: Forrest, Lazaridis, Cole, Moncur. Booked: Foe, Dicks.
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Vieira, Adams, Anelka, Bergkamp, Overmars, Keown, Parlour, Petit. Subs Not Used: Manninger, Hughes, Garde, Upson, Diawara. Booked: Winterburn. Goals: Bergkamp 35, Overmars 45, Anelka 83, Parlour 87.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
