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And with that, surely, the title race is over. Liverpool had drawn four of their previous eight games which had created an opening. Had Arsenal beaten West Ham and Liverpool lost at Manchester City this weekend, the title would have been in Arsenal’s hands, at least to the extent that they would have won it if they had won every game they had remaining this season, including away at Liverpool. But, after Arsenal limped to a 1-0 defeat, Liverpool produced their best performance in weeks to win 2-0. The gap is 11 points and, even though Arsenal have a game in hand, it’s very hard to imagine either Liverpool dropping sufficient points or Arsenal winning enough for that to be overturned.
Arteta described himself as “very, very angry” after his side’s defeat, admitting they were “nowhere near the levels that we have to hit to have the opportunity to win the Premier League”. But there’s been an element of that all season. This was only Arsenal’s third league defeat of the campaign, but there has been something distinctly underwhelming about them. Too many points have been frittered too cheaply. Too often they have failed to grasp chances. And too often ill-discipline has let them down.
Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card on Saturday was the fifth Arsenal have collected this season. That’s not a sign, as a significant proportion of Arsenal’s support would insist, of referees being against them but of their players repeatedly committing needless offences. Sure, other teams have got away with kicking the ball away, but the best way not to get a second yellow card for kicking the ball away is a) not to get a first yellow card; and b) not to kick the ball away. Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were both dismissed for the most pointless offence and in both games, at home to Brighton and away at Manchester City, wins became draws.
William Saliba was sent off as they lost 2-0 at Bournemouth. Although Lewis-Skelly’s red at Wolves was overturned – generously, frankly, given he kicked Matt Doherty several feet from the ball – he was sent off again on Saturday, denying a goalscoring opportunity with a crude lunge on Mohammed Kudus. That’s 10 points gone in games Arsenal finished with 10 men: 10 extra points would have Arsenal a point behind Liverpool with a game in hand.
Where Arsenal have been unfortunate is with injuries: to lose Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus simultaneously would be extremely hard for any squad to deal with. Could they perhaps have brought in a striker last summer rather than bolstering their midfield and backline? Certainly the loan signing of Raheem Sterling hasn’t worked.
But it’s also true that Arsenal are not a side that handles adversity well. They get down on themselves, lose faith too easily. When Martin Odegaard was injured earlier in the season, there was a sense that in the absence of their highly gifted captain, they no longer believed great things were possible. Again and again this season, there has been a sense of acquiescence in disappointment: not only on Saturday, but also in the defeat at Bournemouth, in the draws to home to Everton and Aston Villa and away to Fulham and Brighton.
They lack a certain edge, the capacity to get the job done even in unfavourable circumstance, the hardness of champions. Liverpool, by contrast, have that quality in abundance. There haven’t been many games this season when they have obliterated their opponents, only a handful of indelible performances, but they are the masters of doing enough, playing within themselves, getting over the line. And they have, in Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, the best attacking player and the best defensive player in the league, which really does help.
Sunday was a consummate performance. The statistics may show that Liverpool had only 34% possession and only eight chances to City’s 16 (Liverpool won the xG 0.7-0.6) but once Salah had put them ahead from a well-worked corner after 14 minutes, a win for Arne Slot’s team seemed inevitable. It was their seventh 2-0 league win of the season; a margin that typifies their ability to win comfortably without overextending themselves, the scoreline of champions.
Even if Arsenal can somehow find an inner resolve and rally to win every Premier League game until the end of the season – although their focus will surely now shift to the Champions League – they could only get to 89 points. That means 26 points from their final 11 games guarantees the title for Liverpool. Realistically, they are not likely to need anywhere near that figure and should have their 20th championship, pulling them level with Manchester United, wrapped up long before they play Arsenal at Anfield in May.
On this day
William Garbutt was one of the great pioneers of football, his story typical of those early 20th-century British men who set off for Europe full of fine intentions only to find politics and history overwhelming them. Garbutt was born in Hazel Grove near Stockport in 1883 and played as an outside right for Reading, Woolwich Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers. Aged 29, he went to Genoa to work in the docks, but soon found himself appointed as the first manager in Italian football, leading the team to the northern championship in 1913. When war was declared, he was sent to the front in France.
He returned to Genoa and, introducing such progressive ideas as structured warm-ups, hot showers and signing players from other clubs, led them to back-to-back national titles in 1923 and 1924. He left the club in 1927 and worked for Roma, Napoli, Athletic of Bilbao and Milan before rejoining Genoa in 1937. When the second world war broke out, he fled, and was separated from his daughter. His wife died in an Allied air raid and, although he was later reunited with his daughter, the sense was that he never quite recovered. He returned to the UK in 1951 and died in Leamington Spa on 24 February 1964.
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This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected], and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
