AS MIKEL ARTETA’S Arsenal stumble slightly in their quest to keep hold of their position at the top of the Premier League table, the unthinkable prospect of losing the top spot to Manchester City has emerged as a reality.

Following a seven-game winning run, going into last night’s game against Southampton Arsenal had drawn their previous two games, dropping four available points. 

They now have six big games remaining as they bid to win their first league title since 2004.

One of these fixtures is particularly significant, as they face City next week in a game which could decide the title.

City’s game in hand, plus this head-to-head, means the title is effectively in their hands. If they win all their remaining games they will top the Premier League for the fifth time in six years.

A path to claiming the title is never straightforward, though, and the other remaining fixtures will no doubt play a part.

If Arsenal did eventually finish second, questions would be raised around whether this could still be deemed a successful season for the club, or if it would be seen as a failure having found themselves in such a good position ahead of the run-in.

Before deciding either way, it’s worth taking a step back to look at the bigger picture.

Most pre-season predictions had Arsenal scraping fourth spot, if they had them finishing in the top four at all. 

Most bookies ranked the Gunners around sixth in terms of favourites for lifting the title, with pundits predicting another title showdown between Man City and Liverpool.

City will always be in the conversation given their riches and their world-class manager, Pep Guardiola. It takes something special, and perhaps out of the ordinary for a team to challenge them.

For any would-be challenger, everything that can go right needs to go right most of the time.

This is why Arsenal, even with a lead at the top of the table that was as many as eight points at one stage, were still seen as challengers to City rather than champions-elect.

For Liverpool, even a tally of 97 points wasn’t enough to pip City to the title in 2019. The season prior to that, City’s closest challengers, Manchester United, finished 19 points behind as Guardiola’s side completed an extraordinary 100-point season.

There are many similarities between this Arsenal challenge and Liverpool’s challenges to City under Jurgen Klopp, and perhaps also Liverpool’s 2013/14 season where they came close under Brendan Rodgers.

Some of these parallels come in the feeling among fans. There can be uncertainty as a result of the unexpected position at the top of the table, but the rollercoaster ride of a title challenge to this City side can certainly be enjoyed, too. Away trips to grounds around the country can be even more special with something like this at stake. 

The challenger to City is always the underdog, which itself brings added emotion for fans of the side challenging.

It’s an indication your club is going in the right direction and an indication they can now compete with the best teams domestically, and potentially in Europe.

But there are also nerves, tension, and trepidation, which increase as the finish line approaches and points are dropped here and there.

A January transfer window can be viewed as a make-or-break moment. Did the club do enough to improve the team for the title challenge?

Teams can, in theory, always do more in a transfer window so it’s an easy area to point to if things go wrong, or in anticipation of things going wrong. 

But Arsenal signed well in January 2023, maintaining squad morale and stability (unlike Chelsea) and improving the depth of quality in the team (unlike Liverpool) with Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, and promising defender Jakub Kiwior.

While Arsenal’s success or failure is being judged on one season, the questions being asked about Liverpool this season can be judged over a longer period. 

There are more parallels with Arsenal in that, to put the current campaign into context, there needs to be a step back to look at the bigger picture

Liverpool had only played Champions League football once in six seasons prior to Klopp’s arrival. On that occasion, they were knocked out in the group stages following a fairly dismal showing, winning just one game in a favourable group featuring FC Basel and Ludogorets Razgrad as well as Real Madrid.

Liverpool’s current season, in which they are highly unlikely to qualify for next season’s Champions League and have slumped towards mid-table, has been deemed a disaster.

Given the high standards at the club, finishing outside the top four should certainly be seen as a failure. But in the six consecutive seasons Liverpool have qualified for Europe’s top competition under Klopp, they have put together the club’s best run in that competition in the Champions League era — winning, one, finishing runners-up twice, and never failing to qualify from their group.

Their domestic trophy haul last season brought the club a first League Cup since 2012 and a first FA Cup since 2006. 

In 2020 they won their first league title in 30 years — their first in the Premier League era, and also packed up their first-ever Club World Cup.

For good measure, Liverpool also claimed a Europa League runners-up medal in Klopp’s first season as manager.

Liverpool’s 2022/23 season has been deemed a failure, and rightly so, but when looking at the bigger picture they have been in their best shape since the late 1980s, and that shouldn’t be discounted when judging the current state of things at Anfield.

Liverpool’s run of league finishes between 2017 and 2022, which included that title win and two runners-up medals, have been their best since their 1980s heyday. The team that put together this run and lifted these trophies has a good argument for being the best the club has ever seen.

Despite their slump this season, in the grand scheme of things, and by a number of measures, Liverpool are doing better than they ever have. They just need to recover next season to prove this is just a blip.

As with Arsenal, you have to remember where the club has improved from when judging any such blips.

If Arsenal fail to win the league this season, it will still be the first time they have finished in the top four in the last seven seasons. 

They have proved they can challenge at the top even though, heading into the season, no-one outside the club believed they could.

But there will still be that nagging feeling of an opportunity missed. Getting into the position to challenge City, and even be several points above them in the table, can be a rare thing. 

A sense of disappointment, if Arsenal don’t win the league, would be understandable. 

2014, 2019 and 2022 still nag at Liverpool fans on occasion, and it will be the same for Arsenal, but it is nevertheless a sign of progress.

The best thing they can do will be to show it is sustainable by competing at the top once again next season, and there’s still hope among their supporters that they will be doing so as defending champions. 

After all, it is better to be challenging at the top of the table than to not be, and it’s better to have that hope than to not have it, at the end of this season and into the next.