The Premier League has finally returned from its interminable spring hiatus and for anyone unsure whether the competition really deserves the hype and hyperbole lavished upon it consider the gigantic swing in momentum that has occurred even in its absence.
It doesn’t seem possible but Arsenal’s most recent Premier League match was the Max Dowman game four weeks ago, a 2-0 victory over Everton that had Arsenal supporters and pundits alike convinced this would be their year.
It feels like another age, a lifetime ago, a simpler time. Back then Arsenal were on top of the world, but when Arsenal play Bournemouth on Saturday the mood will have shifted almost beyond recognition.
Twenty-eight days later, if the score stays 0-0 for too long it’s easy to imagine a haunting silence descend on north London as the Arsenal players stagger about like the undead.
Fear will grip Arsenal every second until they win the Premier League title. That doesn’t indicate some sort of character failure. There is simply no other way to get over the line after a two-decade wait.
Look back upon every new (or returning from a long absence) Premier League winner and be it Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Leicester or Blackburn the story goes one of two ways: either they win the title by an enormous margin, forgoing stress by galloping out ahead early doors, or they very nearly bottle it right at the end.
The gap for first-time winners is almost always ten points or more, the exceptions being Blackburn in 1994/95 (who lost three of their last five games), Man City in 2011/12 (who were 2-1 down to QPR with minutes to go), and Arsenal in 1997/98...who won the league with just 78 points.
Mikel Arteta’s side cannot escape the emotional horror of the next six weeks. But what they can do is ignore outside noise and put a positive spin on a couple of cup exits that legitimately threaten to derail their season.
A lot of Arsenal people this week have been comparing the defeats to Southampton and Manchester City to when Arsene Wenger’s side crashed out of the FA Cup and Champions League in successive matches back in 2004, prompting accusations of frayed nerves.
They went on to become the Invincibles. These are the kinds of stories Arsenal must tell themselves.
But they are just one bad result on Saturday from losing control of the narrative and handing it to Man City, who could travel to a beleaguered Chelsea on Sunday knowing that victory in all seven of their remaining Premier League matches will mean a seventh title under Pep Guardiola.
Again, 28 days previously that seemed almost unthinkable, yet without a ball being kicked in the competition their outlook has completely changed, not just because they hammered Arsenal and Liverpool in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup but because of the way in which they went about it.
Guardiola might have finally cracked this rebuild. It’s taken far longer than expected but after months of tinkering he has landed on the right system: playing Bernardo Silva in a much deeper role alongside Rodri, which helps City keep a stranglehold on possession while freeing up space to play Rayan Cherki (as the ten) and Antoine Semenyo (on the right) in the same team.
Erling Haaland’s finishing last weekend, Cherki’s juggling at Wembley, and Semenyo’s predictably lethal form have brought back the swaggering Man City of old.
That could be enough to reel Arsenal in, especially if the Champions League distraction proves too exhausting for a squad already beginning to feel the effects as injuries mount up.
Arsenal cannot allow in intrusive thoughts like that, and despite the mounting dread they ought to be able to, because there is a far simpler and more likely story they can choose to believe in.
Man City need to win all eight of their remaining Premier League matches just to hit 85 points. Fail to win one of those eight and Arsenal will require four wins from seven to guarantee the title is theirs.
One step at a time, one game at a time, Arsenal only need to mostly hold their nerve. They don’t need perfection like Man City and Liverpool a few years ago but they do need to avoid getting techy and they do need serenity, despite an anxious-looking Mikel Arteta repeatedly calling for more fire in the belly.
One wonders whom Arteta calls in the dead of night to calm his nerves. Not his mentor, that’s for sure.
It’s lonely at the top, and it’s times like these when dark thoughts fester. Anything less than a win on Saturday and Arsenal may begin to feel that the deadly virus is coming; that they’ve already been bitten.
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