Arsenal fans have a chant they love throwing at Tottenham — "it's happening again" — reserved for the moments when their rivals are suffering some particularly painful collapse. The irony right now is almost too much to take.
Because after Sunday's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, it is happening again. For Arsenal. On the title race. For the third season in a row.
Mikel Arteta's side went to the Etihad full of belief, played well in patches, and still lost. A familiar story. A gut-punch the Arsenal fanbase has now experienced enough times to recognise immediately — that sinking feeling when a season that promised so much starts to slip away in the final stretch.
Three years, three heartbreaks
Think back. 2022-23: Arsenal led the Premier League for most of the season, then collapsed under pressure when it mattered most. City overhauled them in the run-in and lifted the trophy. 2023-24: Again Arsenal pushed hard all season, again City (and eventually Liverpool) pulled clear. And now 2025-26 — the same story is writing itself with the same pen.
The margins are razor thin. Arsenal are not being embarrassed. They are genuinely competing, genuinely putting in the effort. Bukayo Saka continues to be one of the best players in the league. Martin Odegaard pulls the strings. Gabriel and White are a solid defensive unit. The squad is good — maybe the best it's been under Arteta.
But good isn't enough when City are in this form. Pep Guardiola's side find another gear when they need it, and right now they need it. Erling Haaland, despite injury concerns earlier in the season, is scoring at will. Kevin De Bruyne — however long he has left — produces in the big games.
Arsenal can't seem to find that same ruthlessness when it counts.
What keeps going wrong?
It's not tactics — Arteta's teams are organised and intelligent. It's not effort — nobody doubts Arsenal's commitment. It might just be something psychological. Some invisible ceiling that keeps stopping this group from closing the deal.
The stats will show that Arsenal drop points against mid-table sides they should be beating. The stats will also show they don't score enough in the clutch moments. Arteta has been vocal about the need for belief, for a winning mentality that goes beyond just working hard. But belief is easy to talk about and apparently harder to manufacture when it's actually needed.
Pep Guardiola was in a generous mood after the game. He praised Arsenal, spoke warmly about Arteta, said he was "proud to be challenging" such a good team. Guardiola being that complimentary about a rival in April is essentially a victory lap. He knows the race is his to lose.
The fixture run makes it worse
Arsenal face Newcastle on Saturday in a game they simply must win. Miss out on three points there and the gap becomes potentially insurmountable. Newcastle under Eddie Howe are nobody's idea of an easy afternoon — they fight, they press, they have Alexander Isak in terrifying form up front.
Meanwhile City have Burnley mid-week, which is about as comfortable a fixture as you'll get in the Premier League right now. They should bank those three points without much fuss, which would extend their lead before Arsenal even kick off Saturday.
The numbers are not kind. The calendar is not kind. And the history suggests Arsenal are not built — not yet — for the mental grind of finishing a title race.
Does this end Arteta's tenure?
Not in any reasonable world, no. He's built Arsenal into genuine contenders from a standing start. The club has gone from mid-table jokes to consistent top-two finishers. The Emirates buzzes on match day in a way it hasn't in years. Arteta deserves credit for all of that.
But you do start to wonder how many near misses the board will accept before they ask whether a different manager might actually close the deal. Roman Abramovich used to ask that question after every Champions League semi-final exit — Chelsea cycled through managers until Mourinho and then Ancelotti and then Di Matteo eventually got them over the line.
Arsenal are not that club. They don't chop and change at the first setback. But the question will quietly fester if this ends the same way as 2023 and 2024.
There's still hope. Just.
Six games remain. City have not yet won anything. Dropped points, injuries, a moment of complacency — any of it could shift the balance. Football has produced stranger last-gasp title swings before.
Arsenal need to win every game they play. They need help from elsewhere. They need City to blink.
It might happen. It probably won't. But the Gunners have earned the right to stay in this until the mathematics say otherwise.
Arteta said after the City defeat that his team gave everything. That part is not in question. The question — the one that keeps coming back every April — is whether everything is ever going to be enough.
Arsenal face Newcastle United at the Emirates on Saturday, April 25. Kick-off: 17:30 BST.
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