Arsenal’s title hopes for the 2020/21 Premier League season have all but been extinguished following a 3-0 defeat to Roberto De Zerbi’s high-flying Brighton. This result leaves the Gunners four points behind Manchester City, who also have a game in hand. On January 18, Arsenal had an eight point lead over City, however, following their dramatic 3-2 win over Manchester United at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta’s men then went on a run of three games without a win in the league. This included a 1-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park, a 1-1 draw with Brentford and a 3-1 defeat to City.
Arsenal rallied to win seven consecutive Premier League games between February 18 and April 1, with the 4-1 win over Leeds opening up another eight point gap over City. However, their title challenge began to collapse following a 2-2 draw against Liverpool on April 9 and a 2-2 draw against West Ham seven days later. A third successive draw followed against bottom of the table Southampton with Arsenal scoring two late goals to rescue a 3-3 draw. The mammoth title showdown with Manchester City was lost 4-1 at the Etihad, which left City just two points behind with two games in hand.
Despite their best ever start to a Premier League season, picking up 50 points from their first 19 games in the competition, Arsenal spent 248 days at the top of the Premier League table this season without winning the title. Of the 18 teams who have earned 70 or more points from the first 30 games of a Premier League campaign, 15 of them went on to lift the trophy at the end of the season – with Arsenal set to become just the fourth team to finish empty handed.