Arsenal are in danger of one of the all-time Premier League title chokes

It remains to be seen how kind history will be to the great Arsenal choke of 2023.

The discarding of six points, with three successive draws, followed by the crushing defeat away to Manchester City may still ultimately prove to be a blip. But it may also be a deeper scar; a permanent reminder.

But first Arsenal, lest it be forgotten, remain two points clear at the summit of the Premier League. While City have two games in hand and while, undeniably, the momentum has shifted so emphatically to the champions, Arsenal are still in this.

And yet if they had not surrendered two-goal leads away to Liverpool and West Ham United, if they had not somehow contrived to be 3-1 down against the league’s worst side, Southampton, before salvaging a draw, how different today would look. If, if, if… three painful ifs and there is no sugar-coating it. The draws at West Ham and Southampton were terrible results.

Had Arsenal turned those three draws to wins their lead would be eight points. Their destiny, with five games to go, would still emphatically be in their own hands. City would have been unable to do anything about it even if they collected a maximum return in their remaining seven fixtures.

Arsenal could have afforded to go to the Etihad and been pummelled. They could have lost to City in the league to an aggregate of 7-2, as they have done, and still gone on to win it.

Instead the label of chokers is being applied even if, again, it comes in a campaign where the height of Arsenal’s ambitions appeared to be finish in the top four. Not to come close to winning their first title in two painful decades.

All careers, especially sporting ones, can be reduced to a few images both glorious and often, unfortunately, cruel. Just ask Steven Gerrard whose slip to allow Demba Ba to score for Chelsea came nine years ago on Thursday and helped end Liverpool’s hopes of winning the title for the first time since 1990.

Liverpool did not choke – they won 10 of their last 12 leagues games, drawing the other – but the slip came at precisely the wrong time especially as it was followed by losing a 3-0 lead to draw away to Crystal Palace and ‘Crystanbul’ and the narrative was formed as City ran them down and were crowned champions instead.

Story continues

And so there was one painful statistic doing the rounds in the minutes after the final whistle at the Etihad on Wednesday with Opta stating that Arsenal are the first team to go four consecutive Premier League games winless while starting the day top for each match since March 2008. And which side did it then? Arsenal of course.

They had been five points clear but their resolve seemed to be shattered when Eduardo so horrifically broke his leg under Martin Taylor’s challenge in the draw away to Birmingham City.

It was the first of four consecutive draws before a defeat away to Chelsea and the theory developed that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were showing a tendency to choke when the pressure was on them.

The enduring image was of captain William Gallas sat on the turf on his own and refusing to budge after the final whistle until ordered to do so by Wenger who, eight years later, was still protesting that Arsenal were not serial chokers.

That was also through the lens of Arsenal fading badly in previous title races, not least 2010-11, when they again appeared set to usurp Manchester United only to finish fourth and 12 points off the pace. The collapse was blamed on another game against Birmingham, the shock loss of that season’s League Cup Final.

When Arsenal were five points clear again in Nov 2013 it prompted United striker Wayne Rooney to say: “We’ve seen before that they’ve been in the top two until February or March and then faded away.” It was the season City won their second title under the Abu Dhabi ownership.

Having lost five of their last 10, including two of their final three, league games last season to drop out of the Champions League places at the very least Arsenal have to ensure they finish strongly. In losing to City they confirmed a top four finish for the first time since finishing runners-up to Leicester City in 2016. But there is no comfort in that yet.

If Arsenal fear they will once more be entering the pantheon of Premier League chokes – and it does sound harsh especially given the power of the opposition they have been challenging in Pep Guardiola’s City – at least it will not rank alongside Newcastle United’s collapse in 1996.

In January Newcastle established a 12-point lead over United before what remains one of the most dramatic capitulations in the history of football. The enduring image this time was Kevin Keegan’s emotional meltdown in front of the cameras and the line: “I will love it if we beat them. Love it.”

It did not happen and, since then, Newcastle have never come as close to winning the title. That will be the fear for Arsenal this season even if their squad and their development under Mikel Arteta appears to be built on more solid foundation.

But April has been the cruellest month for them, with just six points from 15, and as excellently as they have performed this season history may be about to classify them alongside other infamous collapses.