The Premier League title race was ended on Saturday evening, with Arsenal’s loss to Nottingham Forest handing the title to Manchester City but it was decided long before then.
In the end we knew that City were going to be crowned champions and after last week’s loss to Brighton it felt somewhat inevitable that it would come with another Arsenal defeat.
There’s still three league games left for Pep Guardiola’s men but in truth the story of the campaign has already been told throughout the season.
Looking back at the title race we’ve pinpointed 15 games that have really come to define how the title went, and most of them involve the Gunners.
Manchester United 3-1 Arsenal – September 4th 2022 – Mikel Arteta’s team went into the game with their long time rivals having won the first five games of the season. A controversial decision went against them and they finally dropped points but remained above City.
Manchester City 2-1 Fulham – November 5th 2022 – With Arsenal’s brilliant form continuing City were trying to keep in touch. Joao Cancelo’s red card made it tough for Guardiola’s side and it looked like they were heading for a draw. That was until Erling Haaland scored a 97th minute penalty.
Manchester City 1-2 Brentford – November 12th 2022 – Heading into the World Cup, Arsenal had only dropped five points. City would have felt they needed to win to stay close. Ivan Toney scored a 98th minute winner and would have left Guardiola asking some questions going into the six week break.
Arsenal 0-0 Newcastle United – January 3rd 2023 – The Gunners were still plenty ahead at the start of the year but a controversial draw with Newcastle asked plenty of questions of their mentality as players, fans and the manager left the game feeling angry.
Everton 1-0 Arsenal – February 4th 2023 – Sean Dyche turned up to Goodison Park for his first game in charge of the Toffees. It was a classic Dyche game that saw them go away with the spoils and kicked off a poor run for Arsenal.
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Manchester City – February 5th 2023 – A day later and Arsenal would have been thanking their local rivals for doing them a favour. No doubt mixed feelings for the Spurs faithful, who were still fighting for top four at the time.
Arsenal 1-3 Manchester City – February 15th 2023 – Arsenal had been eight points clear with a game in hand but had yet to play the team chasing them. The win, Arsenal third dropped points in-a-row, took City back to the top of the table.
Aston Villa 2-4 Arsenal – February 18th 2023 – A day that looked to swing the title race back in the north Londoners’ favour. After three poor results it looked like Arsenal would draw again. Former Arsenal goalkeeper Emi Martinez scored an injury time own goal and Gabriel Martinelli wrapped up the points with a fourth goal.
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Manchester City – February 18th 2023 – Chris Woods’ late goal earned Forest a huge point and denied City the chance to go back above their title rivals. Significantly this would be their last failure to win in the title race.
Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal – April 9th 2023 – As good as City had been since the Forest win, Arsenal hadn’t dropped points since losing to City. They were leading 2-0 to a Liverpool side who hadn’t won in three and looked to be ending their Anfield hoodoo. However they led Jurgen Klopp’s side back in and it was the beginning of the end.
West Ham 2-2 Arsenal – April 16th 2023 – A week later and it looked like the Gunners had bounced back in the most perfect way possible, leading David Moyes’ relegation candidates by two goals after 10 minutes but they somehow let the hosts back in. Not helped by Bukayo Saka’s penalty miss, they became the first league leaders to throw away back-to-back two goal leads in Premier League history.
Arsenal 3-3 Southampton – April 21st 2023 – The best way to get over the previous two results was against bottom of the table Southampton, or so Arteta would have thought. Arsenal required the comeback this time, trailing 2-0 and 3-1, only for two goals in two minutes to rescue a point but the damage was done.
Manchester City 4-1 Arsenal – April 26th 2023 – A trip to the Etihad after the previous three damaging results was the last thing the Gunners needed. They were blown away in the first half and with City’s now inevitable late season form in full effect there was no way back for the visitors, in the match and the title race.
By the time Arsenal lost to Brighton last weekend things were pretty much done and that loss and the one to Forest on Saturday merely sped the process along.
For Arteta’s side they will look to see what they can do to make sure this title challenge wasn’t a one season thing and try and escape the possibility of getting dragged back into the pack next season.
City on the other hand have a FA Cup and Champions League finals to look forward to, those would be the defining games of their campaign.
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