How Arsenal were undone by perfect Man City in title race

Arsenal saw their eight-point lead at the summit evaporate as Manchester City close in on another title, but the “bottling” theme for the Gunners couldn’t be further from the truth.

This has been doing the rounds on talk shows, social media, and anything else you can think of: Arsenal bottled the league.

Picking up the pieces after the 3-0 loss to Brighton at the Emirates is an arduous task to do, especially given the position the Gunners found themselves in a mere five weeks ago.

While the eight-point lead that the Gunners once held seems like the incredible fall from grace, some have pointed out that perhaps City’s title triumph was inevitable.

How so?

How Arsenal were undone by perfect Man City in title race

Arsenal have been overtaken by one of the best teams on the planet in the last decade.

Manchester City are a juggernaut and have won 12 league games on the bounce since their 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on 19 February. That is impeccable form.

Oh, that isn’t including their unbeaten run in the Champions League and FA Cup either, which would stretch their unbeaten streak to 23 games in all competitions.

Of course, there will be fans from rival teams that make Arsenal the punchline of their jokes… but when the season is put into context, Mikel Arteta’s young squad pushed one of the best teams on the planet right to the brink and has forced them to be perfect – which unfortunately, they have been.

With a young squad that only had the ambition to secure Champions League football, Arsenal’s season has been a resounding success, and one of the only reasons the side has lost the title to City is because they couldn’t compete hard enough for long enough.

But against THIS City team, realistically, which team could?

Even looking at Arsenal’s points total, had they won against Liverpool, West Ham, and Southampton and City maintained their winning streak through until the end of the season, the Gunners would STILL have finished second.

If Arteta’s side were “invincible” in the run-in, they still wouldn’t have won the league title. That is incredible.

Such has been City’s squad depth and Arsenal’s lack of it, that for some, has been the biggest reason why the Gunners have stumbled late on in the title race.

Simply put, Arsenal got beat by an incredible juggernaut that not many teams in world football could go toe-to-toe with… and they did it for 36 out of the 38 league games.

If that is “bottling it”, then there’s no shame in that.