Arsenal’s scrambled brains and missed chances will really hurt Mikel Arteta | Jonathan Wilson
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Eight minutes of nonsense have all but put paid to manager’s title dreams after draw with Aston Villa. Mikel Arteta dropped to his haunches, laid his hand on his brow and let his head slump. When he looked up again, he had his thumb and forefinger to his eyes. It was the fifth minute of injury time, Leandro Trossard had just rolled a shot wide and Arsenal’s final chance had vanished. With it, perhaps, so had their hopes of winning the league. At the very least, the gains of Wednesday were handed back.
![[Ollie Watkins turns to celebrate after scoring the equaliser against Arsenal]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/45cd05b03aa4d30ccda93aa7644095b1e3c636b2/0_147_3947_2368/master/3947.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
As it turned out Trossard, who had been Arsenal’s most dangerous forward, may have been a fraction offside anyway, which perhaps would have been the most fitting conclusion. In the previous eight minutes, Mikel Merino had seen a goalbound shot deflected in off Kai Havertz’s hand and hit the inside of a post. There was a sense in those closing stages of the fates, or at least Arsenal’s chronic inability to seize the moment, being against them.
Arsenal, who have played a game more than Liverpool, had cut the gap to four points and now it’s back at six. But it’s not just about the numbers. Liverpool scored twice in injury time to win; Arsenal threw away a 2-0 lead. Liverpool turned a draw into a win as Arsenal turned a win into a draw. It wouldn’t have taken much to have been different for the gap to have been down to two points and for the pressure really to be on Liverpool. As it is, Arsenal are left with very little margin for error.
What will hurt most of all is the sense that, yet again, this was a game they should have won comfortably. Not for the first time in recent weeks, they struggled to turn domination into chances and into goals and then, having got the second 10 minutes after half-time, they were undone by extraordinary sloppiness. The first Villa goal was the result of a fine Lucas Digne cross and Youri Tielemans’ bravery to get his head in front of Merino’s foot. But what felt characteristic was the way Arsenal then subsided.
