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We are about to see what this Arsenal team is made of after the West Ham defeat.
As the saying goes, 90 percent of professional sport is above the shoulders, and after Arsenal's 1-0 loss to West Ham at the Emirates, we're about to see how mentally tough this team is.
With a glorious chance to close the gap on league leaders Liverpool to just five points ahead of their clash with Manchester City, Arsenal, at home, against an injury-ravaged Hammers side, barely fired a shot.
The lack of creativity and no proper centre forward proved to be decisive. Jarrod Bowen's header just before halftime was the perfect tonic for the visitors, given the gravity of Arsenal's situation.
The Gunners registered just five shots on target from 20 total efforts, and the Hammers, while they only managed five themselves, scored to take a crucial three points out of Arsenal's hands.
The big question now is how will Mikel Arteta's team respond, and even more so if Liverpool beat City to go 11 points clear at the summit. That will surely be an unassailable lead for Arne Slot's side and will put the focus squarely on how the Gunners respond midweek at Nottingham Forest.
“It’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we have to keep going," Martin Odegaard said via arsenal.com. "There are still many games to be played, and we have to keep going. The main thing now is to win the next one and work from there."
While the defeat was poor, the Gunners will now also have to face a Forest team third in the table without Myles Lewis-Skelly after he was sent off for being last man in the 73rd minute as Arsenal was chasing the game.
Myles will reportedly serve his one-match ban against Forest which means another reshuffle from Arteta as things are just going from bad to worse.
And again, the mental makeup of the Gunners as they head towards Forest will be a key watch.
The title race could virtually be over and Arsenal will still have a whopping 12 games left to play. Of course, the Gunners could also look at it as a glass half full, and 11 points in 12 games is doable, hard, but doable.
However, nothing about the West Ham showing will give fans any confidence that a turnaround can happen, and we forgive Arsenal fans for throwing in the towel at the prospect of fighting for the title.
Not mathematically out of yet, but mentally, Arsenal might just be.