Mikel Arteta's side were torn apart at the Emirates Stadium as their dreams of a first league title since 2004 were ended by the impressive Seagulls
Arsenal’s players all slumped to the turf at the final whistle as their Premier League title dreams were ended by a humbling 3-0 defeat by Brighton at the Emirates Stadium. Mikel Arteta’s side went into the game knowing there was no room for error following Manchester City’s victory at Everton earlier in the day, but they couldn’t raise themselves for one final push as their title hopes fizzled out once and for all.
Brighton were excellent and fully deserved their win, with second half goals from Julio Enciso, Deniz Undav and Pervis Estupinan proving the difference. Arsenal had some chances in the first half, with Leandro Trossard clipping the bar and Bukayo Saka going close, but once they fell behind they never looked like coming back.
Mikel Arteta's side know that if they now lose at Nottingham Forest next Saturday that the title will officially be City’s. And even if they do avoid defeat, then a win for City over Chelsea 24 hours later will do it.
Arsenal led the race for so long, but their hopes are now over, extinguished by a relentless run of wins from Pep Guardiola’s champions.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from the Emirates Stadium…
Getty ImagesLOSER: Arsenal fans
When City won so convincingly at Everton earlier in the day, you got the sense that this could be a tricky afternoon for Arsenal. Everyone at the club – from fans to the players – would have started the day pinning their hopes on Everton potentially getting something at Goodison Park, so to see City win so comfortably would have been a big blow.
You could feel before the game that the energy had been sucked out of the Emirates a bit by events on Merseyside. The fans tried to raise the mood, but the players just couldn’t respond.
There was an understandable sense of real disappointment at full-time. Lots of fans had left, lots had remained and cheered the team off. This will take a bit of time to get over, but despite the painful ending it shouldn’t be forgotten what a great season Arsenal have enjoyed.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesWINNER: Manchester City
They had better starting making some more space in that trophy cabinet at the Etihad, because the Premier League title is on its way back to Manchester.
In all honesty, this outcome felt inevitable from the moment City cruised past Arsenal when the teams met a few weeks ago, but now there is no doubt at all. It’s been a relentless run of form from City, who have won their last 11 league games and ultimately that has proven too much for an Arsenal side who have run out of steam.
City can now purely focus on getting their hands on that elusive Champions League trophy, which will be a major boost to Guardiola over these closing weeks of the season.
Getty ImagesLOSER: Gabriel Martinelli
We’ll have to wait and see how bad the ankle injury is that Martinelli suffered early on in the game, but it did not look good for the young attacker. How Moises Caicedo avoided a yellow card for the foul on Martinelli was incredible. It was a poor challenge from behind and you could see Martinelli’s ankle buckle as it rolled under the weight of both players.
Martinelli did manage to play on for a few minutes, but you could see he was really struggling and it was no surprise to see him forced off soon after.
Arsenal will desperately be hoping it’s nothing too serious, but the sight of the Brazilian limping round the pitch at full-time with his leg in a protective boot was not a good one.
Getty ImagesLOSER: Andy Madley and the officials
This was the second weekend in a row that Arsenal were involved in a game that saw the officials lose control early. Andy Madley set the tone when he somehow failed to even book Martinelli for a really dangerous challenge which saw him clatter shoulder first into the face of Karou Mitoma. Caicedo then took revenge on Martinelli a few minutes later with an awful foul from behind which led the Brazilian having to go off. Again, there was no booking for Caicedo.
Those incidents just led to a scrappy first half, with players from both teams seemingly feeling like they could get away with anything without any punishment.
It was a really poor display from the officials, one that was summed up with a linesman inexplicably put his flag up to signal for an offside on Trossard, even though the ball had come to him from a throw-in!
