Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal could have played for three hours without scoring a goal at Nottingham Forest and the journey back to London must have felt twice as long.
After all, the bare facts of Manchester City’s title triumph are stark. Arsenal once held an eight-point lead and spent 248 days at the top of the Premier League table overall. In the end that made for longest stint without winning the league in the history of top-flight English football.
And as he contemplates the “painful” manner of how Arsenal relinquished their grasp on this title – not just this weekend, but over the course of the past two months – Arteta must somehow ensure his side bounce back from the disappointment in time for a renewed charge in August, which doesn’t seem that far away. And this time there’s Champions League football to juggle as well.
“We’ll find a way to do it, but today is just sadness,” Arteta said on Saturday. “People put so much work and belief into this, and I’m sad for them. We wanted to squeeze everything we had in that group, but we fell short. This is my job, my responsibility, and I have to analyse that and think.”
There are causes for both optimism and concern. Sure, if Arsenal can resurrect their early-season form – 50 points after 19 games was a tally bettered only four times in the Premier League era – then pushing Manchester City once more may just be possible.
However, with the fear factor diminishing as the season progressed, and fast starts against Liverpool and West Ham wiped out on two costly occasions, Arsenal’s form of late – two wins in eight, nine points from a possible 24 – is a reason to believe that challenging City again looks a tall order, and top four is perhaps a more realistic target.
“I know we are not at that level but we have to find a way,” Arteta added. “We have to push, make the right decisions, think smarter.”
Arteta also pinpointed the draw at Anfield, where Roberto Firmino equalised in the 87th minute on 9 April, as the moment this title tilt derailed, the point leaving Arsenal six clear of City having played a game more.
“We have conceded a lot of goals, 16 in those matches,” said Arteta. “It’s a lot and a team cannot sustain that to win this league. You have to be exceptional.
“Now we have to face the reality. Today we gave a huge chance away and we weren’t good enough to break them down. We could have played here for three hours [and not scored].
“We lost the game, the championship after months fighting for it, nine-and-a-half on top. We believed we could go all the way but fell short, congratulations to Manchester City.
“From my side I apologise because we had generated a belief that we could do it, but in the end we weren’t and it’s my responsibility. When you come to April and May, you need 24 players available, fit and ready to go. For many reasons we haven’t had that, and we didn’t have those margins going our side. That’s the reason we lost it.”
When it was pointed out to Arteta that all dynasties eventually fall, Fergie’s United, Liverpool in the 80s, and Barcelona more recently too, the Arsenal boss acknowledged it was true.
But a wry smile told you he knows this City side, one he knows all too well, are not relenting any time soon.
“That’s why we have to push,” he added. “That’s not going to happen if we don’t make a lot of right decisions and have the mentality every single day to get to that level.”
For now, that mentality certainly looks shot. Second-best on Saturday to a team fighting for their Premier League lives, Arsenal looked an already-deflated team ready to accept the final blow.
Nottingham Forest were all too happy to inflict it, and though Arsenal host Wolves in Sunday’s curtain-closer, Arteta will surely be thinking of the summer already. A time for “healing”, he admitted, but a busy one too for both manager and board.
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