Arsenal’s 22-year wait for a Premier League title took another hard turn on Saturday when they lost 2-1 at home to Bournemouth, with Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke scoring the goals that condemned Mikel Arteta’s side to their first league defeat since January. Arteta called it a “big punch to the face” and a “painful day”, and said: “That’s what I said to the boys - and now it’s about how we react to that.”
The defeat matters because Arsenal had been top after 32 games and nine points clear, a position from which no team in Premier League history has failed to win the league. But the margin has changed the mood around the race, especially with Manchester City holding two games in hand. If City beat Chelsea on Sunday, they will trim Arsenal’s lead to six points before travelling to Burnley for their other match in hand on Wednesday, 22 April.
That leaves goal difference as another pressure point. If City win at Burnley and have already erased Arsenal’s six-goal advantage, they would move top with five games left to play. Arsenal’s next league fixture is at Manchester City next Sunday, and the title race now runs through that match as much as through the table. The same fixture can either steady Arsenal or hand City the opening they have been waiting for.
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Arteta’s side had come into the weekend on a four-game winning streak while City had drawn back-to-back games, but the balance of the race shifted as soon as Bournemouth left north London with three points. Alan Shearer said Arsenal “could blow it playing like that”, adding that they were “poor in every department”, “no energy” and “flat”, and that they looked “very, very nervous”. He also said the whole stadium seemed nervous, while Chris Sutton said City players will “smell blood”.
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That is the tension Arsenal now have to manage: they still control their fate, but so do City, because the two clubs meet next weekend. Arsenal have not won the league for 22 years, and the pressure of ending that wait is now sitting on top of a title race that has become tighter, louder and far less forgiving.
