Arsenal opinion: It’s not losing to Villa that hurts, it’s the way we lost it

It would be harsh to go too heavy on a team that just lost their first league game of the year in the middle of April. Yes it’s crazy to write us off in the title race when we are only two points away from top of the table.

Yet it’s not losing those hurts, sometimes it’s how you lose.

Early on Sunday, Liverpool dropped points because they were wasteful in front of goal. The irony being it was the result at Anfield that made everyone at the Emirates anxious.

Arsenal slipped up simply because the pressure was too much, our players crippled by a fear of failure, the lights too bright, the stage too wide.

That’s why most Gooners will now be worried because, on that evidence, becoming champions this season is unlikely. If beating Aston Villa to keep your destiny in your own hands made everyone panic then it’s over, because the pressure is only going to increase, the stakes will only get higher. Not one player made an argument that they can handle that. If anything, the performance, atmosphere in the stadium, that feeling in our tummies …. it reminds me of 12 months ago.

It was like fans and players knew that without an early goal, the tension would become unbearable and play into the opponents hands.

It’s hard to write this without the accusations of me saying I told you so.

In reality ask yourself how I knew this was going to happen?

I can understand why you want to believe it’s just a reflection on my character. It’s harder to accept the truth. In reality for two decades, supporters my age have been burnt. We have read this story before, seen the ending of the movie, are aware how the play will end.

I sometimes wonder what do I actually write that is so bad ……

That we have a fantastic young squad which if we keep together will one day lift the title. At the moment we simply lack the mentality to get over the line when it matters.

That’s never meant to be criticism, simply a reflection of where our young squad is at.

Watch how Man City will handle the run in. Not just will they handle playing every few days under must win conditions, they will do it with a smile on their face, because they have a dressing room full of experience.

I would rather be negative but honest, than arrogant and dishonest.

I read in the last week how fans ‘won’t lose sleep’ over winning at the Etihad. The grief I got for suggesting we would have to improve our Porto display to reach the Champions League Final. The abuse for saying Nketiah and Reiss Nelson have no business at our club, yet when it matters do you notice neither are trusted by their manager, just like Smith Rowe hasn’t had any faith given to him by his boss in the last year.

I read this week that Havertz is better than Ozil!!!!

Arteta is now asking for his leaders to step up and ensure we respond. Yet if we had leaders, this weekend wouldn’t have happened.

It’s not meant to be easy, the best things in life are not meant to be straight forward.

We only need the Champions to slip up once and we will overtake them. Not impossible so how comes it feels so far away?

If we had left it all on the pitch it wouldn’t.

That’s why we feel so numb because this was a repeat of 12 months ago, a mindset we thought we were past. A leader demands composure at half time. He takes his peers by the scruff of the neck and insists we pass the ball and not panic; he points out that at 0-0 with 10 mins to go we don’t need to play like we are in trouble.

They demand that the occasion should be a positive not a negative. That should have been a match to embrace, a chance to write yourself into our history books, a moment to become immortal, a chance to live forever. Like Paul Merson said, ‘these moments don’t happen in your career that often’.

The likes of Gary Neville get mocked for trying to explain how hard it is to get over the line. Yet he’s the type of character we lack.

The irony that on the same day destiny was left not in our own hands, Granit Xakha (one of the few leaders we did have) was winning the title in Germany. Given how he was treated by a section of our fanbase, he deserves to get the last laugh?

I remember Roy Keane once described Ireland as, ‘ the usual excuses, weak mentality, scared, scared to take that next step.’

That’s Arsenal … whenever it’s time to take that next step we fail.