A painful defeat, but the race is not over

The weekend had to pass first. After a game like this, it was impossible to sit down immediately and write with any kind of calm, especially when calm has become almost a foreign idea for Arsenal supporters over the last few seasons. Some defeats need to sit for a while before you can see what is left underneath the bitterness.

And plenty was left.

The defeat to City hurts because it did not feel like a game in which Arsenal had nothing to offer. There were chances. There were efforts against the frame of the goal. There were periods where it was clear this team could press, squeeze and trouble Guardiola's machine. But there was also that familiar feeling that the same standard is not always applied when Arsenal decide to be physical.

Still, the hardest truth remains: Arsenal lost the game.

You can talk about Haaland's goal and the duel with Gabriel. You can look at the angle from the touchline and see the shirt pull that helped him find the position from which he scored. You can argue that the same contact at the other end may have been judged differently. But Haaland's class is exactly that he does not wait for the world to agree on justice. Give him a centimetre and he takes a metre. Then he finishes.

The real shame is that Arsenal allowed the season to narrow into a match where one detail could swallow so much of what should have been protected earlier. The lead existed. There were chances to strengthen it. The brutal truth is that Arsenal did not do it.

When City smell blood, they are not the old mid-table side opponents once treated without much fear. Money changed the frame, Guardiola changed the identity, and his idea has been carried onto the pitch with arrogance, clarity and fire. When City start rolling, they are not easy to stop. Sometimes, even when you know what is coming, you still cannot hold them off for long enough.

Arsenal held on. At times, they held on well. But once again, that is where it stayed.

Much has been said about Arsenal being too hard, about Gabriel going head-to-head with Haaland, about whether it should have been red. Maybe someone watching coldly sees only provocation. But those who have watched Arsenal for years know how long this club waited for a centre-back who would not lower his eyes to the strongest man on the pitch. Gabriel is not perfect, and yes, he can cross the line. But in that duel there was also something Arsenal lacked for too long: heart, defiance and a refusal to step back.

If he played for another club, he would be called a warrior. Because he plays for Arsenal, the word "dirty" arrives quickly.

Hincapie fits into that same idea. It was not a perfect performance, but there were moments when he stepped out of the "nice guy" lane in the best possible sense. He showed teeth to Haaland and to City. Arsenal need more of that. Not only from one defender, not only in one duel, but across the whole team. Less asking for permission. More edge.

Because when everything else is stripped away, when you put aside the complaints, the clips, the refereeing standard and the nerves, one moment can almost describe the season: Bernardo Silva against Kai Havertz near the end. A veteran who may be approaching the exit door at the Etihad, a player who has already written history with City, attacks the duel as if his life depends on it. Havertz, by contrast, looks like he is still asking for permission to take what is in front of him.

Maybe it is harsh to reduce everything to one duel. But seasons are often remembered through images exactly like that.

Odegaard spoke after the match about small margins and Arsenal not being sharp enough when it mattered. Rice had called the Etihad the "ultimate test" before the game, and after the defeat the message from the group was not surrender, but the simplest thing Arsenal needed to hear: it is not done. And it really is not done. But now it is no longer enough to say it. Arsenal have to play like it.

If City go on to win it, and they now have momentum and a very real chance, this defeat could become the image of the whole season. Not because Arsenal lacked quality. They have quality. Not because Arsenal have failed to improve. They have improved. But because the final stretch does not reward good football alone. It rewards the courage to take what belongs to you when hands start to shake.

Too many chances were given to make the advantage safer. Arsenal have again left themselves the harder road, or perhaps made it the only road available. Now they need something close to perfection: wins, goals, a calm head and the hope that City slip somewhere.

If nothing else, we have a season to follow until the very last breath. A run-in that demands more attention, more goals and more nerves than anyone wanted. As football lovers, we can enjoy the fight until the final match, the final minute and the final second, when the curtain drops on another season.

As Arsenal supporters, we are left with something much harder: belief.

Belief in a mistake from the rival. Belief in our own fight. Belief in one more goal, one calmer touch, one more moment where the red shirt does not blink first.

With you until the end.

Author: B.