Nightmare Before Christmas Leaves Arsenal Title Dream in Tatters

What a disastrous week it's been for Arsenal. Last Saturday, a win over Stoke took them to the top of the Premier League. Nine days and two games later, they find themselves nine points off leaders Chelsea and in a depressingly familiar fourth place in the table.

Arsene Wenger's hopes of lifting a first title in 12 years seem to be disappearing by the day.

Ordinarily, losing at Manchester City would be forgivable. However, the fact that this was a second loss in the space of six days made it particularly painful. Moreover, the manner of the defeat made this is a bitter pill for the Arsenal fans to swallow. Inexplicably, the Gunners looked unmotivated and lacking in basic organisation.

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Monday: Draw Bayern
Tuesday: Blow one-goal lead at Everton
Sunday: Blow one-goal lead at City

Happy holidays, Arsenal. pic.twitter.com/5YNFfkIGMg

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) December 19, 2016"

It's worth pointing out too that this was a dramatically weakened City team. Pep Guardiola's men had no Vincent Kompany at the back, nor Fernandinho protecting the defence in midfield. Playmaker Ilkay Gundogan was absent, and Sergio Aguero was still suspended after his lunge at David Luiz against Chelsea. This was a great opportunity to record a victory against a championship rival.

Arsenal had the perfect start, too. City's defensive vulnerability was one of the major talking points in the buildup to the game, and that weakness was exposed inside the first five minutes. A lightning-quick counter-attack saw Hector Bellerin play the ball into Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean showed great skill and awareness to bring the ball under his spell before playing an inch-perfect reverse pass through to Theo Walcott, whose finish was immaculate. 

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

The goal should have handed Arsenal the initiative. However, seemingly encouraged by their counter-attack success, the Gunners sat off City and allowed them to slowly assume control of the game. The idea was seemingly to defend deep and look to catch City out on the break, but there was no real coherence to the way Arsenal went about their plan.

Alexis seemed eager to press from the front, but he was often alone in that endeavour. He waved to the other forwards to join him in looking to win the ball back, but they largely ambled about in their own half.

The disparity between the behaviour of certain players suggests there was a lack of clarity about their instructions, and responsibility for that has to lie with the manager. Even if it was a strategic choice to try and defend the lead against City, that's a highly questionable move for a team with as poor a defensive record as Arsenal. The Gunners have not kept a clean sheet in the league since the 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough on October 22.

Arsenal held out until half-time but found themselves pegged back shortly after the break when Leroy Sane ran on to David Silva's pass to finish past Petr Cech. Replays suggested Sane was offside, but the officials allowed the goal to stand. 

Wenger's frustration with the referee was compounded when Raheem Sterling put City ahead. When he skipped infield and fired his shot inside Cech's near post, David Silva appeared to be obstructing Cech's view in an offside position. Nevertheless, the infringement was overlooked and City went on to win the game.

James Baylis - AMA/Getty Images

Afterwards, Wenger railed against the officiating, telling Arsenal.com:

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It's terrible because it didn't look like we could lose this game [at City].

Then in the second half we come out straight away and we concede an offside goal. It's not enough because after we concede another offside goal and I think it's unacceptable to lose games like that.

In the recent weeks we have been absolutely punished by wrong decisions but we can only look at ourselves. I think we dropped physically as well in the second half and maybe the equaliser gave them some courage and we dropped.

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Wenger's comments seem like a classic case of deflection. The manager is attempting to mask a dire display. Arsenal were a little unlucky with those decisions, but it's impossible to mount a case that they deserved to emerge with anything from the game. They were so passive, so painfully lethargic. That was typified by the performance of Mesut Ozil, who seemed absurdly apathetic throughout the game. On days like this, it's impossible to defend the mercurial German.

Michael Regan/Getty Images

He wasn't alone in underperforming at the Etihad. An Arsenal side who had appeared to have grown in mental fortitude over the course of the season simply failed to perform on the big stage. All season long, Arsenal fans have hoped this year might be different. Those hopes have now evaporated in the space of one awful week.

Arsenal's greatest concern will be their porous defence. They have ceded top spot to Chelsea—a team who are racking up clean sheets with ease. For much of the season, Arsenal have played like a team who intend to rely on outscoring their opposition—but sooner or later, that strategy will come a cropper. History shows that to win the Premier League, you need a reliable back four.

Wenger seems aware that talk of the title must be dismissed until Arsenal develop some defensive solidity. He told Arsenal.com: 

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We have to come back next week and win our game. I think we've had an absolutely horrible week and what is worse is that out of two good performances, you get zero points. And out of two leading positions, we lost two games. That of course is very disappointing. Before we think about the nine points, we have to come back and be realistic. For a while we have not kept a clean sheet, and if you want to play at the top you have to keep clean sheets.

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There is a crumb of comfort to be taken from the fixture list. Arsenal's next landmark game is the trip to Stamford Bridge on February 4. Between now and then, the Gunners face six very winnable games against West Brom, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Swansea, Burnley and Watford.

If Wenger's team are to have any hope of reigniting their title hopes, they must come close to taking a full 18 points across that period. Then, and only then, will that Chelsea game have any major significance in the title race.

Arsenal aren't quite out of it yet. However, against City, we saw why improvement is imperative if they're to end their long wait for a league title.  

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17. Follow him on Twitter here.