Last weekend, as Manchester City's players celebrated their 2-1 win that pulled them back into the Premier League title race, Erling Haaland strolled around the pitch smirking while Arsenal's exhausted players looked at one another in bewilderment. In the south stand, City fans unfurled a banner that read: "Panic on the streets of London." Arsenal's nine-point lead in mid-March suddenly seemed like it was from a different campaign.
That was only the start of the reaction. Later on Sunday evening, BBC "Match of the Day" pundits Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy were predicting the title race run-in. Rooney went for Arsenal to win the league, only for host Mark Chapman to counter: "The only reason I'd flip that is how nervous it seems at the Emirates?"