ARSENAL fans left the Emirates on Sunday evening with the horrible feeling they have seen this film before.
And — spoiler alert — the ending is not a happy one.
Manchester City lift the Premier League title and plans for a bus parade around Islington are shelved for another year.
The fear for Arsenal right now is that history will repeat itself following their shock defeat by Manchester United.
Mikel Arteta’s side still have a four-point lead over City and Aston Villa at the top of the Prem.
But that gap would be far greater had the misfiring Gunners not failed to win any of their last three league games.
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The Emirates was awash with nerves on Sunday — so much so that you would have forgiven any Arsenal supporters who chose to end their dry January early.
It is a vicious cycle right now, where the nervous energy in the stands feeds on to the pitch.
Yet Arteta and his players also need to take responsibility for the atmosphere and it can easily be argued their performances are creating tension.
Either way, if it carries on like this you have to wonder what the Emirates will be like in April, given it is already a pressure cooker.
City host Arsenal that month in a game that already looks far more defining than many thought it would be only ten days ago.
The Gunners were their own worst enemy against a rejuvenated Red Devils side.
In the words of Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, it was “self-inflicted pain”.
After taking the lead in the 29th minute, Arteta’s side lost their heads and control of the game.
Martin Zubimendi’s sloppy pass gifted Bryan Mbeumo an equaliser — but the goal had been coming before that.
In the eight minutes between the opener and Mbeumo striking, Arsenal’s pass completion dropped by 10 per cent as sloppiness kicked in.
United’s goal was in the post . . . and the same can be said of this painful defeat.
Arsenal’s previous two league games before this were goalless draws against Liverpool and lowly Nottingham Forest. Those disappointing results fed into the anxiety.
Unlike City, the Gunners do not have the luxury of being able to lean on a goalscorer like Erling Haaland.
Reigning champions Liverpool could turn to Mohamed Salah when they needed a moment of magic last season.
Arsenal are missing that. Own goals is their second top scorer in the Prem this season with four.
Star winger Bukayo Saka has historically been the man to bail them out, but he has now gone 13 games without a goal.
The added frustration for Arsenal is that away from the intense pressure of another title race, this team looks completely different.
Do not forget, this loss to Michael Carrick’s men came after a brilliant 3-1 win over Inter Milan — Champions League finalists last season — at the San Siro on Tuesday night.
Arteta’s Gunners are also joint-top scorers in Europe’s A-list club competition this season with 20 goals from a run of seven wins on the spin.
The lack of jeopardy in the new format can explain some of that — but it is also impossible to shake the feeling that the North London giants have scar tissue when it comes to title races.
It is 22 years since they lifted the Premier League and only agony has followed that ecstasy.
Supporters can remember as far back as the 2007-08 season, when the wheels came off after striker Eduardo broke a leg during a game at Birmingham.
For this squad, there are the scars of being runners-up three seasons in a row.
So how does Arteta solve the problem? The ambitious Emirates boss famously loves learning from other sports — and he could do worse than studying golfer Rory McIlroy.
Arsenal ratings vs Man Utd
ARSENAL’s title hopes were handed a huge blow as they suffered a shock defeat at home to Man Utd.
The Gunners are now three games without a win in the Premier League and their lead at the top has been cut to just four points.
Mikel Arteta’s men took the lead through Jurrien Timber before Bryan Mbeumo capitalised on a Zubimendi error to quickly equalise.
And a Mikel Merino second half goal wasn’t enough to earn a point as Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha netted stunning strikes either side of it.
The Gunners now face a tough trip to Leeds with Man City and Aston Villa breathing down their necks.
Here’s how SunSport’s Simon Collings rated the Arsenal stars on an afternoon they’d rather forget.
McIlroy revealed after last year’s Masters how his caddie, Harry Diamond, got his head back in the game ahead of a play-off for the Green Jacket.
McIlroy had almost blown his chance to finally win The Masters and was reeling, before Diamond reminded him that he would have taken being in a play-off at the start of the week.
It is the same for Arsenal. Arteta and his players would have bitten your hand off at the start of this season to be sitting four points clear at the end of January.
This United defeat should be a moment for Arsenal to reset, regroup and mentally prepare to exorcise all those demons. Do that, and they have the talent to lift a first title since their 2003-04 Invincibles.
Tomorrow night’s match with Kairat Almaty will help with that — as the Gunners host the worst team in the Champions League this season in a dead rubber.
Pep Guardiola’s City slipping up that night would be handy, too, because it would force them to play two energy-sapping extra games next month in the play-offs.
After Kairat, Arteta takes his side to Premier League new boys Leeds on Saturday.
Ordinarily, a trip to Elland Road would be the last place teams fighting for the title would want to go.
However, given the tense atmosphere at the Emirates right now, Arteta and Co may actually find life on the road easier.
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