In what was billed as the biggest Premier League game in years, Arsenal’s defeat on Sunday against title rivals Manchester City could prove to be a fatal blow to their hopes of ending an agonising 22-year wait for football glory. Arsenal appeared to have one hand on the English Premier League trophy for months, but City are now just three points behind them, with momentum and a game in hand when they face Burnley on Wednesday. A win for Pep Guardiola’s men will see them replace his once-protege Mikel Arteta’s side at the top of the table.
In a frenetic first half at the Etihad Stadium, Rayan Cherki opened the scoring for City before a mistake by Gianluigi Donnarumma was seized upon by Arsenal’s Kai Havertz to bring his side level. The equaliser, which came out of nothing, got the Arsenal fans believing that it might be their day, and their season. In the second half, Erling Haaland’s relentless pursuit of a winner in the crucial fixture paid off with a second-half goal.
On the other side of the pitch, Havertz missed with a late header that could have brought yet another plot twist to this Premier League season’s saga. It prompted City fans to point towards a banner that read: “Panic on the streets of London”. Once the full-time whistle was blown, pundits agreed that City’s triumph could be the decisive act in the title race.
However, Arsenal manager Arteta was defiant after the game and insisted that the trophy is still the Gunners’ to lose. Realistically, though, he now needs Guardiola’s team to slip up. Arsenal began the season all guns blazing and lost just three of their first 49 games in all competitions.
A month ago, the North London club’s fans were dreaming of a historic “quadruple” of trophies. A defeat to City in the final of the English League Cup, on March 22, seriously wounded Arsenal, as the 2-0 loss wasn’t just a bad result, but a tame performance. Within a week, another trophy had disappeared, this time in an FA Cup quarterfinal defeat to second-tier Southampton.
Earlier this month, sports statistics service Opta gave Arsenal a greater than 97 percent chance of becoming champions, when victory over Bournemouth would have taken them 12 points clear at the top. Now they are barely clinging on to the top spot. There is time for at least one more momentum swing, but Arteta is starting to look like a wilting frontrunner, with the vastly more experienced Guardiola on his shoulder ready to sprint past in the final straight.
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