Have Arsenal’s top four hopes been shattered?

When drawing up a pre-game wishlist ahead of Monday, ask any Tottenham or rival fan what they had optimistically scribbled and it would have been near identical to what unfolded for Arsenal.

Before kick-off everyone was knocked back by the devastating news of Kieran Tierney’s knee injury, one that looks set to rule him out for the remainder of the season. The reports are unconfirmed as of yet, even if the signs are perilous.

Then there is the performance. A performance that belonged in the latter months of 2020.

Collectively the entire level of the team dropped in every single aspect of the game. Watching this team perform as heroically as it had over the past four months, at Selhurst Park they were as atrocious as they’d been impressive at points across that spell.

Have Arsenal’s top four hopes been shattered against Crystal Palace? A heavy 3-0 defeat and injuries to Tierney and Partey are a big blow

It would be disingenuous to brush over Crystal Palace, however; the Eagles must be applauded for their own outstanding display, one of bite, organisation and tenacity.

But this was as discouraging as it has been for Arsenal. When you’re in the mire and hooking off second choice left-backs during the break there may be chances to snatch a goal or two, and even those went begging from Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard.

To truly compound the defeat beyond a level considered feasible before kick-off, Thomas Partey could no longer walk as he went down clutching his thigh, mere seconds before Wilfried Zaha’s penalty. Mikel Arteta confirmed after the match that it’s the same area of the thigh he’s injured so many times previously.

This was an unmitigated disaster. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, on a night that has the capacity to completely derail the season: two key players missing for an unconfirmed length of time, a centre-forward looking at his weakest, a left-back who is unusable, a seven-goal swing in Tottenham’s favour…the list goes on.

Many are throwing in the towel. Mathematically the top four is still in Arsenal’s hands, but injuries are in such crucial areas of the pitch that returning to the level of performance shown previously may be a bridge too far.

This is no time to be defeatist.

Call a spade a spade: this is immeasurably devastating. It’s deeply concerning. But it’s round one of ten.

Above all, it would be cruel on the players to throw in the psychological towel here. They’ve done all they can to get to this point and while it can sometimes be hard to grasp as a concept, they want this just as much, if not more, than the supporters do. They won’t be calling it a day.

This is the Gunners’ third league loss in four months and they have the joint-fourth most points in the Premier League with a game in hand. There is context to the intangibles but that is the cold hard facts at this stage. There were ten cup finals, and now there are nine.

Go back to matchday three of the season – in fact, even before the season – and if it was offered to anyone that Arsenal would be in this position with nine matches to go they would have taken it. Not only that, they would have snatched at the hand without knowing the level this team can perform at.

It may be that Arsenal are watching a second successive season unravel on the absence of a left-back. It also may not. Until the walls do come tumbling down and there isn’t just one or two bricks out of place, then nothing changes.

Arteta needs to compartmentalise this, rally his troops, refocus them, and go again on Saturday. The manager preaches unity. Now more than ever have Arsenal needed it.