Thomas Frank labelled Arsenal as "title contenders" after the Gunners' convincing 3-0 victory at Brentford, where Mikel Arteta saw a "very different" team to the one defeated by the Bees last season.
Captain Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko were absent through injury on Sunday, but Arsenal rarely looked troubled as they condemned Brentford to their heaviest top-flight defeat at home since May 1947.
William Saliba and Gabriel Jesus scored first-half headers before Fabio Vieira's brilliant strike on his full league debut sealed the victory.
Tougher tests may come against Tottenham and Liverpool after the international break for Arsenal, who moved back above Manchester City at the Premier League summit, and Frank expects them to be challenging at the top this season.
"We lost 3-0, to the number one in the Premier League," Frank told Sky Sports. "I said before they are a top side.
"I think we performed quite well, not 10 [out of] 10 but if you want to win or get something out of the team flying, you cannot concede the first from a set-piece and then the second one.
"In general, unless it is something unbelievable brilliance from a set-piece, I want us to avoid every set-piece goal. There are a few bits we could have done better for the second.
"They didn't create that many chances but had quality in moments. We lost the game, I hate losing.
"They are top of the table so you cannot argue with that, they have done brilliantly. Looking at their quality, they must be title contenders."
It was a markedly different display to the one Arsenal turned in against Brentford in the corresponding fixture last season, which finished 2-0 to the hosts.
"A lot of people described what happened last year as a really bad day, the team had to evolve and journey together to react," Arteta said.
"You can give up, question everybody, blame them or learn a lesson and look in the mirror. Today, there was obviously a very different team.
"It was very difficult in a rollercoaster of actions where you are constantly under pressure. They are very good at what they do but we managed to take the game how we wanted so credit to the boys.
"We wanted to get back to the top, yesterday [City] took it away from us, but we showed that desire from the first minute and we have done it."
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
Silva grateful Fulham's dominance was rewarded with late win
Marco Silva believes Fulham claimed a "deserved win" against Brentford, though admits they should have secured the three points much earlier in their 2-1 victory.
It looked like Vitaly Janelt's 24th-minute strike against the run of play was going to wrap up all three points for Brentford, but Harry Wilson proved the Cottagers' hero off the bench, scoring twice in stoppage time to snatch the three points.
Fulham had dominated from the first whistle and had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, though they struggled to find a way past their opponents' staunch defence until the 92nd minute.
Wilson became just the sixth player to score an equalising and match-winning goal from the 90th minute onwards in the Premier League, while his second goal was Fulham's latest-ever Premier League winner at 96:46.
Silva was delighted with how his team pushed until the final seconds to ensure they came away with a win.
"It was definitely a deserved win. We started on the front foot and dominated all the game. In the first 20 minutes, we had two clear chances to score," Silva told BBC Sport.
"After they scored, we didn't lose the confidence and the trust in ourselves, we kept pushing them back, and we created enough to not be losing at half-time.
"I told the players this is football, it can happen, but we have to keep pushing, working hard and playing our way.
"It was late, it should've been much before, but that's football."
Brentford, meanwhile, have now dropped a league-high 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League as they suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the competition.
In fact, they are the first side in the competition's history to score the first goal in four consecutive away games and lose all four.
They had defended resolutely until their late lapse in concentration, and even had a chance to win it, only for Bernd Leno's impressive save to keep out Fabio Carvalho in the 95th minute.
Thomas Frank, though, admitted he was not yet ready to take the positives from the performance after the disappointment of their late defeat.
"It was tough. It is emotionally very tough right now," Frank told Sky Sports.
"When you are leading in the 92nd minute, and you lose, it is tough. I don't think we hit our highest level. I think on the day Fulham were better.
"There was a lot of good defending and effort, and I thought that would have given us the win. We could have won it with the chance for Fabio Carvalho and then we lost.
"When we look at the game back, and we are more cool-headed, we will probably be very happy with the defensive standard. I thought there were unbelievable blocks, and recovery runs and all that we did well. On the ball, we didn't do enough."
Fulham 2-1 Brentford: Wilson's late brace seals comeback win
Harry Wilson scored twice in stoppage time as Fulham came back to beat Brentford 2-1 in an enthralling West London derby.
Wilson was the hero from Fulham's bench on Monday, as Marco Silva's team – who were on the wrong end of a late comeback against Everton last time out in the Premier League – salvaged a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fulham will feel it was a win they earned from a match they dominated from the off, with the Bees having taken the lead against the run of play through Vitaly Janelt's stunning 24th-minute strike.
But the Fulham pressure finally told when Wilson rose high to flick in his first in the 92nd minute, and – after Bernd Leno made a superb stop to thwart Brentford at the other end – the former Liverpool midfielder nodded in again to send Craven Cottage into raptures.
Fulham's win takes them up into ninth, while Brentford drop to 12th after suffering a fifth league loss of the season.
Data Debrief: Super-sub Wilson to the rescue
Fulham will feel they deserved to come away from that match with three points, having had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, in an incredibly dominant display.
They also had 46 touches in the opposition box compared to Brentford's nine, but they could not make those count, at least until Wilson's late intervention as he finally broke through Brentford's stubborn defence.
The Welshman scored with both of his shots on target, having three attempts overall, with his goals coming from a combined 0.19 expected goals.
The Bees looked sure to get a first away win, and first clean sheet, of the Premier League season until their late lapse in concentration, and they have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the competition this season, more than any other team.
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