Eight minutes of nonsense have all but put paid to manager’s title dreams after draw with Aston Villa

Mikel Arteta dropped to his haunches, laid his hand on his brow and let his head slump. When he looked up again, he had his thumb and forefinger to his eyes. It was the fifth minute of injury time, Leandro Trossard had just rolled a shot wide and Arsenal’s final chance had vanished. With it, perhaps, so had their hopes of winning the league. At the very least, the gains of Wednesday were handed back.

As it turned out Trossard, who had been Arsenal’s most dangerous forward, may have been a fraction offside anyway, which perhaps would have been the most fitting conclusion. In the previous eight minutes, Mikel Merino had seen a goalbound shot deflected in off Kai Havertz’s hand and hit the inside of a post. There was a sense in those closing stages of the fates, or at least Arsenal’s chronic inability to seize the moment, being against them.