How Arsenal surrendered Premier League title advantage to Man City

Duo meet on April 18th 

Arsenal surrendered a two-goal lead to bottom of the table Wolves on a potentially pivotal night in the Premier League title race. Mikel Arteta’s men looked on track to ease to a comfortable win after Bukayo Saka and Piero Hincapié established a two-goal lead for the league leaders. The Gunners would’ve opened a seven-point lead over Manchester City – with one game played more – at the top of the table but Wolves mustered an unexpected fightback.

Hugo Bueno scored a stunning goal to reduce the deficit before disaster struck for Arsenal deep in added time when Tom Edozie’s strike was deflected into his own net by Riccardo Calafiori. The Gunners have now surrendered leads in their last two league fixtures and their mentality will now seriously be questioned. And crucially, the destination of the title is now in Manchester City’s hands as they will win the title – if they can win all their remaining 12 fixtures.

Will history repeat itself for Arsenal?

Arsenal have been top of the league for the majority of the season but Man City are now applying serious pressure. Arteta’s men will be extremely conscious of past trauma when they’ve blown leads in the title race, especially to Pep Guardiola’s men. In the 2022/23 season, Arsenal had an eight-point lead over Man City after 29 games but Guardiola’s men had a one-game advantage and the Gunners capitulated.

Arteta has transformed Arsenal’s fortunes but his side have constantly been accused of ‘bottling it’ during the business end of the season. The Gunners have the second most valuable squad in the world but they’ve failed to win silverware since 2020 and it’s a legitimate criticism of Arteta and his squad. Man City are renowned for embarking on winning runs at the end of the season and although they will be crowned champions, if they win their remaining fixtures – that is highly unlikely. City haven’t been convincing this season and they face some difficult fixtures but the pressure will also firmly be on Arsenal to prove their title credentials. The duo meet at the Etihad on April 18th in a mammoth fixture and it’s now poised to be a thrilling title race.