Arsenal froze like rabbits in headlights against Man City

Arsenal have stirred the soul and enriched the spirit, but they are not champions-in-waiting. That much is evident after this chastening schooling by Manchester City, as Mikel Arteta confronts the bitter realisation that his team are, by a distance, the second-best team in England.

It represents a brutal comedown after an intoxicating eight-month adrenalin rush of a season, persuading even Arsenal's implacable doubters that this team that might, just might, stay the course. It was a noble fantasy while it lasted, but it was one grievously holed below the waterline by Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, City's twin blond torpedoes.

Watching Arsenal's haggard players troop off the Etihad turf, cruelly disabused of any delusions that this match could propel them towards a title march, you were reminded of the fateful words of Gary Neville. "Bottling is a very negative phrase," he said, as Arsenal limped into this all-important contest on the back of three self-sabotaging draws. "But there are signs it's happening."

Indeed there are: Arsenal, having spent most of this campaign with a comfortable if unlikely lead over City, are in the throes of a deep psychological freeze. You sensed the mortal terror coursing through their defence as De Bruyne and Haaland hared towards them under a spring evening's sunset. Never mind William Saliba's back injury, the rest of the back four risked being diagnosed with an acute case of twisted blood.

This had been the fear for Arsenal all along, the prospect that their increasingly discordant efforts would come up against a rhapsody in sky-blue. And so it proved, with City at their symphonic best in realising all Mikel Arteta's bleakest premonitions. City's sheer fluency, coupled with Arsenal's shredded nerves, was the perfect vignette for capturing what this season has become, a tale of tentative pretenders finding themselves overwhelmed by the remorseless power of repeat champions.

It was a game to encourage the theory that City are just too pulverising for the Premier League's greater good. For years, a slogan has endured that this is the most competitive league in the world. It has even survived the an era of stubborn top-four dominance. But now, by far the most glaring gulf is between City and everybody else. This side, perhaps the grandest of all Pep Guardiola's creations outside his zenith at Barcelona, is now closing in on a fifth title in six years, a level of supremacy more associated with the Bundesliga.

Truth be told, this outcome for Arsenal had been telegraphed for some time. Take your pick: the moment when, 2-0 up at Anfield, they allowed Liverpool to re-establish a foothold. Or the tormented expression of Bukayo Saka as his penalty against West Ham went horribly awry. Or the impression of full-systems meltdown when they fell 3-1 behind to Southampton. The template for this emphatic outclassing by City was plain to see.

Arsenal's conviction that they could be champions-elect has visibly ebbed away. In their befuddlement as to how to contain the lethal De Bruyne-Haaland axis, they looked unsure as to whether they even belonged in this fight.

The explanations for Arsenal's rabbit-like fright under the dazzling City headlights are complex. They have not shrivelled solely because of the unfortunate absence of Saliba, or because Arteta suffers some deep-seated sense of inferiority when face-to-face with his old mentor Guardiola. If there is one compelling theory, it is that they have forgotten the art of how to handle these grindingly tense title run-ins.

It is 19 years since they could last claim to be champions, and it shows sometimes. When Arsenal put Manchester United to the sword in January, the mood on the streets of north London suggested an impending coronation. They had defied prophecies of a post-World Cup wobble, while Guardiola was lamenting how his City players were "far" from their best. What was not to like? And yet the grandest prizes are never sealed in midwinter. It is in April that true winners come to the boil, a habit that has become ingrained at City under Guardiola's watch.

This was one of Guardiola's cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof nights, when nothing his charges did appeared to be good enough, even when three goals to the good. He is impossibly highly-strung, but it is a trait that unlocks titles. While he exhorted City to reach even loftier standards until he was hoarse, Arteta beside him was a study in dejection, at a loss for any solution.

Arteta's achievement should not be downplayed. His team have gone on a magnificent tear, and could yet end up with 90 points, the same haul as the Invincibles of 2004. But what Arsenal would give for a fraction of the champions' mentality that City displayed here. For as they beat their weary path back home, there was no sugaring the pill: they had fluffed their cue when it mattered most.