Arsenal came close to snapping the Premier League dominance of Manchester City for the second time after last season’s second place finish but after Sunday’s last games of the season, the Gunners trailed City by two points to end up as runners-up.

 

Mikel Arteta has defintely taken the Gunners to new heights in the top division and are certainly once again regarded as one of Europe’s top sides after few seasons of uncertainty.

 

Surely, Arsene Wenger’s legendary status looms large and he won three Premier League titles and 13 FA Cups for Arsenal – with Arteta in charge of the Gunners whwn the won the oldest cup competition.

 

However, the north London rivals were runners up in the 2016/2017 season when Leicester City defied the odds to win the title. In fact, Arsene Wenger’s team that boosted of stars like Santi Carzola, Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Per Merttesacker and Arteta himself among others.

 

Arteta has done a great job and deserved the appaluse from the adoring supporters in the stands despite coming short again.

 

To put into context, the 2023/2024 Premier League title race was decided on the last day of the season which reflects the enormous progress made by the team.

 

Here looks at the where the Gunners lost the title to the ‘City machines’

 

The VAR Controversy

 

Flashback to 4 November 2023 and Arsenal controversially lost their first league game of the season coming after four days another huge VAR isse involving Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.

 

From that moment onwards, it seemed as though that the ‘breakfast will be served every team’ which in local parlance means being disappointed and heartbroken.

 

On that fateful day, Newcastle United were aided by the video technology as Anthony Gordon’s goal was allowed despite the ball crossing the byline in the buildup.

 

The VAR check were in three segments: the ball being out of play, if there was a foul on defender Gabriel, and for offside.

 

Incredibly, the VAR operators judged that it was a fair goal albeit the PGMOL – the referee body admitting to an error afterwards.

 

Arteta called the VAR decisions “embarrassing” and a “disgrace” and it will be interesting to know what Arsenal’s stance would be on the VAR vote come June 6.

 

The New Year Eve chaos against Fulham

 

When Arsenal made the short trip to Cottage Road to face Fulham, there was hope that they will turn the corner after two defeats in the month of December against Aston Villa and West Ham United but the Gunners delivered what was probably the worst performance of the season with a 2-1 defeat to the hosts.

 

After this loss, the team travelled to Dubai for a warm weather holidays and that had massive and positve impact on the team as they never lost again until a former coach/manager in Unai Emery came calling to his former workplace.

 

No fooling around for Villa 

 

Unai Emery who led the Arsenal side to the final of the Europa League in his first year in charge after the departure of Arsene Wenger and finished 5th on the Premier League table led his Villa side to a massive 2-0 win on April 14.

 

Remember, Villa had beaten Arsenal in the reverse leg at the Villa Park back in December.

 

That was ill-timed as Manchester City are known to barely lose their games from that stage of the season.

 

Most Arsenal faithful prayed hard that the Champions League exersions would impact on the team but they overcame those challenges and also lost out to Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the competition meaning unbiased attention to the Premier League.

 

These were how Arsenal handed City the advantage but the era of City dominance is closing down and rapidly too.