After the ennui and angst, Arsenal keep Premier League title race alive | Barney Ronay
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Hosts played with a concentrated spirit in north London derby and were good value for their 2-1 defeat of Tottenham. Maybe the world isn’t ending after all. Or at least, not yet anyway. For Arsenal, and indeed the Premier League, the title race is still alive, still twitching, like a dog kicking out in its sleep wondering whether to wake up.
![[Myles Lewis-Skelly and Brennan Johnson.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/96fb6ea02bb8b9a855af8b47726f34d958684a47/0_60_1803_1082/master/1803.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The past week has felt like a point of crisis for Mikel Arteta’s team, with cup defeats, points dropped, the attack and midfield gripped with a kind of ennui football. Certainly the energy around this team can often seem manic, overly low then overly high.
But Arsenal played with a concentrated spirit at the Emirates Stadium and were good value for a 2-1 defeat of Tottenham that leaves them just four points behind Liverpool, and with their season narrowing towards an extended league pursuit through the spring.
If so it will be against the head. Liverpool have enough fresh air to swallow a tricky run. There is also zero suggestion right now that Arsenal are coiled to hoover up every available point from here like relentless nihilistic sideways passing avengers. But just off the shoulder of the leaders, still to find your best form. This isn’t a bad place to be.
It certainly felt like that at the end, as Freed From Desire pounded around the stands, as Freed From Desire must on all such occasions, as men in quilted coats hugged and bobbed in the aisles. But this was also a victory that contained information. The side is good. The side is together. The side is also still struggling to find the most liberated version of itself. Playing in this fashion Arsenal just won’t score enough regulation goals – generic, unbranded goals, open‑play goals – to win the routine games that make you champions.
