And then the gap is only 4 points. Still 4 points, but what Arsenal can hardly erase is the feeling that they should have created a much bigger gap.
Manchester City only won one of their last 5 Premier League matches, but Arsenal also failed to take advantage of the opportunity. In the matches against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, they both drew 0-0. And that makes the "Gunners" vulnerable in a match like this. From Arsenal's perspective, the championship race is still more tense than necessary.
Matheus Cunha's late goal made a difference in Manchester United's dramatic victory right at the Emirates. A moment of brilliance significantly narrowed Arsenal's accumulated advantage over the past few weeks.
Arsenal should not have been worried. They are the best team in the league to date. They are also the most stable team in the Champions League, having only lost 3 matches in all competitions this season. The Gunners have enough grounds to believe they are the strongest team in Europe at the moment.
But suspicion still exists. Arsenal is still away from the Etihad in April and if defeated, the gap may only be equivalent to a win. At that time, the pressure will become heavier than ever, and just a small mistake can change the top spot.
There is no clear reason for Arsenal to be pessimistic. Man City has not shown signs of entering the familiar winning streak. However, for a team that has been waiting for the championship for 22 years, feeling worried is inevitable.
Arsenal is sometimes like a perfect, cold and precise machine. But when they have to live too long in an environment of expectations, they begin to carry very human characteristics. Especially anxiety, or excessive awareness of the consequences of each decision.
That trend has somewhat subsided this season, but it still exists. Pressure from fans, from the memories of previous seasons of exhaustion, makes Arsenal sometimes lose the necessary sharpness, even when they are in the leading position.
In the first half of the match, Arsenal completely controlled the game. They pressed continuously, suffocating Man United and making the opponent almost unable to deploy the ball. Although the clear chances were not many, the feeling of a goal was only a matter of time.
And it came in the familiar way. From a cross that was not decisively cleared, Man United struggled in the penalty area and finally could not stop Arsenal from taking the lead.
But immediately after that, Arteta's machine began to malfunction. The "Red Devils" no longer had the chaotic appearance of Ruben Amorim's time, but they also did not show the ability to reverse the situation. However, in a situation that was almost unpressed, Martin Zubimendi missed a pass back to David Raya, creating conditions for Bryan Mbeumo to punish the mistake.
From that moment, pressure from the championship race suddenly weighed heavily on Arsenal, and their reaction was deeply human instinct.
This was once a weakness of teams with absolute control. When the system malfunctioned, no individual was able to turn the tide. The pace slowed down, accuracy disappeared and confidence gradually eroded.
The boos appeared during halftime. Not exactly anger, but an expression of anxiety. And that feeling was even greater when the second half began.
A moment of personal explosion decided everything. Patrick Dorgu moved into the center, controlling the ball with his knees and hips before launching a powerful shot from outside the penalty area. The ball hit the edge under the crossbar and went into the net, proving that football cannot be calculated by algorithms.
Arteta made four consecutive changes, but the control he wanted did not return. Even when Arsenal equalized from a set piece, they still could not re-establish their dominance in midfield.
And when Arsenal's squad rose in the final minutes, Matheus Cunha had too much space to launch the decisive shot, closing the disappointing afternoon of the home team.
Spontaneousness has defeated systematicism, in a way that evokes classic confrontations between Man United and Arsenal in the past.
Arsenal is still the strongest team in the league. But to become the champion, they will have to overcome their biggest challenge.
