Arsenal missed out on their first Premier League title since 2004 despite claiming a late 2-1 victory over Everton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
In order to miraculously win the title, Mikel Arteta’s team needed to defeat Everton at the Emirates Stadium and hope that City would either draw or lose in Manchester.
But after champions City defeated West Ham 3-1, the Gunners had to make do with second place.
Late in the first half, Idrissa Gueye gave Everton the lead, but Takehiro Tomiyasu swiftly pulled one back.
City was already well on its way to winning the championship when Kai Havertz scored the game-winning goal for Arsenal in the 89th minute.
An obviously moved Arteta told the Arsenal supporters after the game, “This team are unbelievable.” It all began with your belief in us. Please don’t stop encouraging and pushing them.
“Stop being depressed. We are going to achieve far more than that, which is what we desire.”
In their eighteen league games in 2024, Arsenal had been nearly perfect, winning sixteen and drawing one, away against City.
But one costly error in a 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa last month proved to be the difference that prevented them from winning a championship since Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles” in 2004.
They came in two points behind City, who have won six titles in the past seven years and an unparalleled four wins in a row.
On Saturday, employees of Arsenal were observed practicing a fictitious championship presentation at the Emirates, complete with dummy versions of the trophy and medals and placards bearing the words “Premier League champions.”
Unfortunately for Arteta’s heartbroken squad, there would be no real title celebration in north London as they had to accept their fate.
Anticipating a title-winning team, Arsenal supporters had strolled along the sun-kissed Holloway Road into the Emirates more in hope than expectation.
In deference to their London rivals situated 200 miles north, a few even chose to don West Ham shirts instead of those belonging to their own team.
Just before kickoff, the crowd went into overdrive with a boisterous performance of the club’s anthem, “North London forever.”
Tomiyasu’s close-range header from close range in the opening stages of play should have given Arsenal the lead, even with injured star Bukayo Saka not there.
But as soon as word spread that Phil Foden had opened the scoring for City in the second minute, the atmosphere collapsed.
The sold-out 60,000 spectators fell into a despondent silence, but Arsenal tried their best to regroup.
The Everton supporters insulted the Arsenal supporters with chants of “you nearly won the league” after Foden’s second goal in the eighteenth minute silenced the home crowd.
As Declan Rice leaped to defend Gueye’s free kick, the ball took a nasty deflection off his head and looped over the wrong-footed Arsenal goalie David Raya into the far corner, giving Everton the lead in the 40th minute.
To their credit, the Gunners showed no signs of giving up and equalised three minutes later through a superb finish by Tomiyasu, who collected Martin Odegaard’s ball and blasted past Jordan Pickford from just inside the box.
When they learned that Mohammed Kudus had cut the deficit for West Ham late in the first half, Arsenal supporters put up a furious yell.
They were rejoicing for a little while when a spurious story that West Ham had equalised went viral.
Arsenal was four points behind City in the “as it stands” table at halftime, having been pulled in an instant from hopelessness to optimism.
As Arsenal’s players huddled together in anticipation of one more charge in the second half, Havertz squandered two opportunities to offer them hope, first nodding wide and then heading against the crossbar.
There was stillness in the Emirates stands after City’s score in the 59th minute from Rodri.
And Arsenal had already accepted that their prospects of winning the title were over until Havertz scored a late goal.
Photo by EPA/TOLGA AKMEN
