Holding disaster a long time coming
Going into a game like this, a lack of belief is like a bad apple. One player without the confidence to get a victory can infect the whole batch.
From early on it became clear that Rob Holding was that player. The 27-year-old set the tone for the night by simply ducking and covering as Manchester City launched their first aerial assault on the Arsenal back line. The imperious Erling Haaland almost couldn't believe how easy it was as he plucked the ball out of the sky under a minimal challenge, before turning and playing in Kevin De Bruyne for the opener.
The lack of confidence spread quickly across the Gunners team. Before long there was inquest after inquest. After the first goal Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard could be seen conferring before passing on a message to Thomas Partey to pass to Holding. On one occasion as Holding took too long to clear from the back Gabriel could also be seen shouting over to his defensive partner with panic clear in his gestures.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on title race, Odegaard's verdict and Man City loss
It would be easy here to spend the remainder of this talking point laying into Holding, but picking at such low hanging fruit doesn't do much for anyone. The reality is that this kind of performance had been a long time coming.
If City have proved one thing in their treble push, it's that modern football is a squad game. Just as Arsenal were missing a key player in William Saliba, Pep Guardiola's side were missing arguably their best defender this season in Nathan Ake. While the Gunners replaced their key man with Holding though, City were able to bring in a £50million England international in Kyle Walker. It's this that separates the two sides.
Holding was not good enough to secure Arsenal Champions League football last season, so to expect him to help bring home the title was fanciful at best. If you want to win a Premier League though, you cannot afford to have such a drop off in quality.
Many have criticised the Arsenal hierarchy for the fact that the decline from Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu is so severe, but was anyone really demanding that the Gunners sign another centre half in January or last summer? Arsenal's excellent form seems to have blinded many to the fact that they are still in the midst of a massive squad rebuild. Edu has upgraded almost every position in the starting XI over the past few windows, but doing that for the whole squad takes time.
There are still players in the group like Holding who clearly need levelling up, but this was never going to be done overnight. It's a shame that it had to be so brutally exposed on such a big stage, but the gap between Arsenal and City is still huge.
Of course Arsenal aren't bottle jobs
One of football's most cringe-inducing phrases has been doing the rounds yet again. Arsenal are being labelled bottle jobs.
Perhaps if you look at the way the past few games have panned out you could argue there's something to it. Surrendering consecutive two goal leads is technically bottling it. As is dropping points to the worst team in the Premier League and receiving a hammering by your title rivals to hand them control of the title race. Just as the Gunners have needed a steady hand, their belief has deserted them.
But there is a problem with this theory. Labelling Arsenal as bottle jobs implies that the title was theirs to win in the first place. The truth is though that it was only ever Manchester City's to lose.
Having added the best No.9 in world football to a side that had already registered over 90 points and 90 goals in three of the last five seasons, not winning the league would have been a disaster for City. Despite doing their best to run the almost inevitable champions close, anything above top four for Arsenal was a bonus.
Many who label the Gunners as bottlers seem to have forgotten this. You can't simultaneously say it would be a shock for Arsenal to win the league and then claim that it would be a failure of character if they don't.
After the game Mikel Arteta was keen to highlight how good a job his side had done in keeping pace with City across the course of this season. "We’ve been nine and a half months here," the Spaniard said in his post-match press conference. "We lost today here, we have to accept that. We lost in a very different way at the Emirates."
There is probably a wider discussion to be had about what City's seeming invincibility means for the Premier League as a competition. They will now have won four of the last five, which cannot be good for the division as a spectacle - particularly when you consider their financial ability to keep this dominance up.
But it's for that exact reason why Arsenal can't be classified as bottle jobs. To have beaten City would have been miraculous, and there's no shame in coming second to a side like this.
Arteta vows to fight on
It is, of course, technically not over. It is seemingly only Arsenal who can sit top of the Premier League with five games to go and feel this bad. Despite the seeming implausibility of a title at this point, Mikel Arteta was keen to put on a defiant performance with his post-match comments.
"There’s still five games to go," he said. "I’ve been in this country almost 22 years and I’ve seen a lot of things and I know how much it shifts from game to game. There are not easy games in this league. Let’s see. We have to lift our players tonight. We played against an exceptional team, we know that, but we are an exceptional team as well"
The Spaniard was, however, willing to concede that his side would probably need to win all their remaining games in order to stand any chance of pulling off a shock. When you look at the fixture list that will be far from easy.
Despite their defeat at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night, Champions League-chasing Brighton will be a real test. Meanwhile Arsenal need only look down the Seven Sisters Road to see what Newcastle can do to teams at St. James' Park.
This is the challenge facing Arteta and his side. The reality is that falling away at this point would really put a dampener on what has been a superb season for Arsenal. There is no shame in finishing a couple of points behind City, but ending nine or 10 back would be a disappointment. It's in the lap of the Gods now for the Gunners, but if they are given the slightest hint of a favour by fate, they have to get themselves into a position where they are able to take advantage of it.
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