Mikel Arteta lamented his side’s missed chances, but refused to concede the title after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.
The Gunners arrived at the Etihad with a six-point cushion over Pep Guardiola’s side, but Erling Haaland’s second-half strike leaves City in control of their own destiny with six games remaining of their season.
Rayan Cherki and Kai Havertz exchanged early goals, the German capitalising on a dreadful error from Gianluigi Donnarumma, but Arsenal were pushed back after the break and consistently struggled to play through midfield.
They still created enough to take something. Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes both hit the post, while Havertz missed two gilt-edge opportunities, including a stoppage-time header that went over the bar.
On the way the game played out, Arteta said: “Right from the beginning, the attitude of the team, you could see it.
“We could have been more composed in moments, but we certainly took the game to areas that we wanted, and we thought we had the chance to win it.
“We generated situations that we believed we could. We know, we’re in the level we are in because this team has taken us there; that’s the level you have to be to win it.
On the difference between the two sides, he added: “Today, there are certain elements – the most important one – when you are in front of goal, and big chances, like we have today, you need to put it away to come away from the Etihad with three points.
“There was a lot of battle and intensity, you expect that, but there are big parts of the game that had a lot of similarities with the first 28 minutes of the [League] cup final – because we had two massive chances to go ahead and we didn’t – that changes the course of the game.
“We take it game-by-game, we had some very good moments. We’ve seen the level today, we can cope with that, not only that, but we can be even better.”
Arsenal must regroup quickly. Back-to-back defeats have handed the initiative to City, but with several games left, there is still time for more twists and turns.
“We have full belief that we can do it,” said Arteta. “We have been doing it. Today we showed again the team that we are, it’s in our hands, and it’s there for the taking.”