{"id":415659,"date":"2026-01-18T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415659\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:00:08","slug":"premier-league-title-race-arsenal-will-never-forgive-themselves-if-they-dont-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/415659\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League title race: Arsenal will never forgive themselves if they don&#8217;t win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a> may have left <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/nottingham-forest\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nottingham Forest<\/a> on Saturday night regretting a missed opportunity. The reality is they will actually never have a better chance of ending a Premier League title drought stretching back to &#8216;The Invincibles&#8217; of 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mikel Arteta&#8217;s side have emerged from the weekend with an advantage stretched to seven points as the chasing pack aiming to put them under pressure stumbled badly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a> and Arteta will rightly urge caution, but the Gunners will never forgive themselves if they do not claim the crown that has proved so elusive, faced with the domination of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-city\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester City<\/a> and the successes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When every circumstance is examined, this feels like the &#8216;now or never&#8217; season for Arteta&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If they fail to win the title this season from such a position, the regrets will run deep. Everything is in place for a triumphant surge towards the finishing tape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Back-to-back goalless draws has left some questioning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a>&#8216;s firepower but, with the tightest defence in the league and their rivals continually slipping up, it would take a brave person to back against them now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bigger leads have been lost at the top of the Premier League before &#8211; and later in the season &#8211; but none of the teams below them are showing signs of producing the consistency needed to challenge them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-city\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester City<\/a> failed to turn up the pressure valve before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a> travelled to the City Ground by losing the derby at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-united\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester United<\/a> &#8211; a fourth straight match without a win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And then, here at Villa Park, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/aston-villa\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aston Villa<\/a> saw their hopes of leap-frogging Pep Guardiola&#8217;s side into second place undone as excellent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/everton\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everton<\/a> secured a fully deserved win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As for reigning champions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/liverpool\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>, they have mounted a miserable defence of their crown, Saturday&#8217;s disappointing draw against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/burnley\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Burnley<\/a> at Anfield that provoked jeers from their fans leaving them fourth, a distant 14 points behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/arsenal\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsenal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Villa had won their previous 11 games at home, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/teams\/everton\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Everton<\/a> threatened the decisive moments long before Thierno Barry cashed in on keeper Emi Martinez&#8217;s decision to turn a routine stop into an item for his showreel with a classy finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal may have left Nottingham Forest on Saturday night regretting a missed opportunity. The reality is they will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-415659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}