Gabriel Martinelli keeps his cool to give Arsenal the edge against Leicester

This was the kind of no-frills away win title winners need to specialise in ticking off. If Arsenal are rejoicing in May they will remember higher-octane afternoons, but no three points can be sniffed at: they were comfortably superior to a pallid Leicester who hardly hinted at a response to Gabriel Martinelli’s winner.

Martinelli took his goal superbly less than a minute into the second half and it meant Mikel Arteta could, if he wished, save his breath about the earlier chalking-off of a strike by Leandro Trossard. At that point Arsenal might have feared a hard luck story and Arteta, as animated as ever, raged at the perceived injustice. But his players were cool and composed, while rarely at full throttle, in recording their second away win in a week. With Everton next up at the Emirates on Wednesday, they are well en route to rendering their home defeat to Manchester City an irrelevance.

The match had promised rather more. On paper it had borne a resemblance to the see-sawing test Arsenal eventually passed at Villa Park seven days previously. Leicester, usually sparky in attack but more porous than anyone in the division bar Bournemouth, appeared awkward but eminently beatable for a side inching slowly towards the title. The absence of James Maddison, laid low by a flaring-up of his recurring knee problem, certainly created a less daunting proposition.

Arteta had shaken up his own attack by opting for Trossard to operate as a withdrawn central striker, benching the ever-willing but recently profligate Eddie Nketiah. The early stages bore out the sense that Trossard’s role would be anything but orthodox; his drifts out left to allow Martinelli a path through the middle were a feature of exchanges Arsenal controlled.

Their dominance did not immediately bring clear chances against a physically imposing, if often scuffly, defence. Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka tried their luck speculatively before Trossard was found by a clever pass from Oleksandr Zinchenko, captain for the day in a mark of respect for Ukraine, and saw Wout Faes dive in smartly to block. Saka saw Faes intervene again after Jorginho’s raking ball had sent him away, subsequently blazing another effort wide, but Trossard soon appeared to have gone one better.

Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard thought he had opened the scoring after firing home from 18 yards before VAR intervened to rule out the goal. Photograph: Craig Brough/Action Images/Reuters

Arsenal celebrated at length after Trossard, whipping expertly into the far corner from 18 yards after being teed up by Granit Xhaka, left Danny Ward standing. To the naked eye that was the end of it but not so for VAR: a dash to his pitchside monitor by Craig Pawson brought the conclusion that Ward, in clawing a corner out to Xhaka in the buildup, had been impeded by Ben White. The replay showed White had been restraining the keeper’s non-punching arm; the visitors’ dismay was clear and obvious, even if the offence had not remotely been so.

They were entitled to howl moments later when Saka appeared to be impeded by Harry Souttar as he sought to attack a cross; penalties have been given for less but this time there was no call for a review. If the decision to disallow Trossard’s goal was correct, Souttar’s offence certainly seemed no less grave here.

From there the first half, already low-key bar the controversies, petered out. Leicester had barely threatened and much less managed a shot, sporadic attempts to counter down the flanks lacking conviction and quality. There was little to suggest they could fight fire with fire if Arsenal stepped things up.

After 52 seconds of the restart they would have to try. Martinelli’s finish was delightful and so was the approach play from Trossard, who chased a high Gabriel Magalhães pass down the left before nudging the ball cutely through to his underlapping teammate. From there Martinelli, at far from the most straightforward angle, wrapped body and right foot around it and bent his finish around Ward.

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Joy brought immediate concern as Martinelli, caught heavily by Wilfred Ndidi in a futile attempt to prevent the goal, stayed down. He was eventually passed fit to continue and soon saw the hosts carve their first semblance of an opportunity, Harvey Barnes crossing just ahead of the onrushing Tetê.

But Leicester were bland and, bar the noisy contingent from north London, the atmosphere flat. Arsenal pressed for a second: Saka tapped in but was denied by a narrow offside against Martinelli, before Ward parried from Zinchenko and batted away a Gabriel header that the Brazilian should have gobbled up.

Brendan Rodgers deployed Jamie Vardy: if anyone knows how to antagonise Arsenal it is the veteran, and any kind of cutting edge would have been an improvement. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall tried to offer it, worrying Aaron Ramsdale for the first time with a shot bent narrowly wide, but that was as close as they came. The latter stages, a virtual non-event due to stoppages and scrappy play, drifted and Arteta could finally relax.