This was not, for all that Arsenal fans will whine about conspiracies, about the refereeing decisions. It was not about the red card to William Saliba in the first half or about the penalty awarded in the second, profound though the impact of those decisions was. Rather it was about the extraordinary self-destructiveness that led to those decisions, the poor passes, the lack of discipline, the woolly-mindedness that so often afflicts Arsenal at key moments.
Perhaps the standards expected are unrealistic. This, after all, is a team that accrued 89 points last season – in historical terms, a huge number. In the old days, teams were allowed their slips. But that is not the modern world. When 90 points is effectively the minimum required to win the title, points cannot be given away like this if a team is to be regarded as a serious contender.
