Final Match day Heartbreak: Arsenal should learn from Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur versus Manchester City — the so called title decider that has kept Arsenal fans and neutrals on the edge. But is it though?

We have been here before, and everyone should have learnt by now not to hope on Christmas miracles in the final match day of the premier league season as far as Manchester City or Pep Guardiola are concerned when involved in a title race. It just never ends well for the opposition side.

The media narratives go haywire over the possibility of Spurs pulling off a surprise win against Manchester City to hand their North London counterpart the premier league title on a platter.

But we have been here before, twice over. Any premier league title challenger who cannot take advantage of a lead at the top of the table when it has it, should not hope for favors from opposition teams to beat Manchester City for them.

Twice, Liverpool fell victim to this, relying on fate and miracles from other teams starting from the run-in to the final match day of the season. As history has shown, those two campaigns ended in nothing but heartbreak for the Reds who no matter how much they hoped, saw their hopes become despair at the last whistle of the campaign.

Again, similar narratives faces Arsenal, and as social media comments, posts and even player comments like Kai Havertz have shown, optimism still stands strong in the Gunners’ community for a first premier league title in 20-years. It is of course a possibility that this could eventually become the case for Arsenal but that is ignoring the heartbreak a formidable Liverpool side in the 2018/19 and 2021/22 season had to go through in a race against Manchester City.

Like the Gunners, Liverpool were hoping for favors from Tottenham Hotspur to nick points away from Manchester City to hand them a first league title in 30-years in the 2018/19 season, until City fought out a 1-0 win same April of that season. No favors for Liverpool, because Manchester City knew what they were fighting for.

Again, in the 2021/22 season, of course, Spurs were able to do Liverpool a favor but come April, an Antonio Conte side collected that favor from the Reds when they forced Jurgen Klopp’s team to a 1-1 draw at Anfield. Again, no favors.

Where is this leading to?

Arsenal has lost the premier league. They lost it when they fell to a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates. Any hopes for a last minute surprise, is only hanging on to fantasies. Something they should have learnt by now from Liverpool.