Arsenal title hopes rocked by ‘ugly, painful’ win as Man City given ‘encouragement’

In partnership with

Football365

·19 de maio de 2026

Arsenal title hopes rocked by ‘ugly, painful’ win as Man City given ‘encouragement’

Arsenal took another step towards the title by beating Burnley – except the manner of that win ‘will give City greater encouragement’.

That is a hot take Mediawatch is currently struggling to wrap its head around.

Vídeos OneFootball

And Pep Guardiola weirdly wasn’t thrilled to have his picture taken on his way to work on a rainy Tuesday morning.

Getting on Arsenal’s nerves

Considering John Cross so innocently and in a state of such confusion asked last week ‘why is everyone willing Arsenal to blow title?‘, it is interesting to see his reaction to them winning and moving within a single game of becoming Premier League champions:

‘Arsenal’s ugly, painful Burnley win will give Man City hope they could yet nick title’

It feels like Arsenal’s ugly, painful Burnley win – by the same margin Manchester City beat the Clarets a month ago – probably helped further extinguish those title hopes. If Manchester City saw the gap increase to five points with two games left to play, knowing that winning both could still be rendered moot by an Arsenal victory in their last match, and still thought ‘we could yet nick this’, they are a bit daft.

‘This was supposed to be the night that Arsenal took charge and marched towards the Premier League title,’ Cross begins. In a match report. For a game Arsenal won.

‘Instead, they stumbled over the line with a night of nerves which ended with the supposed champions-in-waiting time wasting and running down the clock against already relegated Burnley.’

They won. They led for 53 minutes, had more than 60% possession and hit the woodwork twice. Burnley did not have a single shot on target, and no shot of any kind from the 58th minute onwards.

And again, the team apparently given ‘hope’ of pipping Arsenal to the title beat Burnley in pretty much exactly the same way last month.

But here we have Cross focusing on Arsenal ‘nervousness’ on seven separate occasions – including in three consecutive paragraphs. And they were nervous. But the fact they won in spite of that does feel important and sort of undermines the idea Manchester City might have been encouraged.

‘Normally you would say the three points was all that mattered and Kai Havertz secured those with a first half header. But that was not the case. It was painful, ugly and was far from convincing.’

The three points were definitely all that mattered. That really was the case here.

‘Instead, you can bet that title rivals Manchester City will have been watching and thinking they could yet nick the title.’

They were probably watching and understanding why their manager is quitting at the end of the season after 10 years.

‘In fact, it will give City greater encouragement that they can present Pep Guardiola with one hell of a leaving present as the Spaniard looks set to leave the Etihad this summer.’

Arsenal won, John! Manchester City know they have to beat a team on a 17-game unbeaten run, and the Europa League finalists currently in fourth place, who have already beaten City this season, just to stand a chance of catching Arsenal now! Stop being weird!

‘They looked like a bag of nerves on a night when they were supposed to rack up goals against Burnley just in case it comes down to goal difference.’

They were supposed to win. And did. By the most Like Champions Who Find A Way means possible. There was no genuine suggestion Arsenal might chase a 10-0 and Crystanbul themselves. They just needed to win and did so relatively comfortably.

Quite why we have to pretend that ‘while it remained 1-0, Burnley grew more dangerous’ is a mystery when they didn’t have a shot in the last 40 or so minutes.

And you can’t say Burnley posed a threat ‘even if Arsenal keeper David Raya never really had to make a huge save all night,’ when that sentence is far more accurate if you remove ‘really’ and ‘huge’ – because Burnley didn’t have a shot on sodding target despite facing this nervous bag of nervy Arsenal nerves.

‘Instead, Arsenal just about held on for the win, the three points but it is hard to know whether belief will be strengthened after that.’

Belief was probably strengthened after a victory which moved them to within a single win of the Premier League title, yes.

Ollie gosh

Staying with Cross for a second, we have ‘Thomas Tuchel’s private Ollie Watkins view as England boss set to name THREE strikers’.

This is quite the revelation from the Three Lions camp on what Tuchel really thinks about a forward who has scored 10 goals in his last 11 matches:

‘Tuchel has privately been impressed with Watkins’ form, attitude and determination and that has opened the door for him to come back in ahead of Friday’s squad announcement.’

Groundbreaking stuff, certainly. But nothing compared to this apparent exclusive:

‘Watkins looks a red-hot favourite to make the cut and it is believed he is in the 55 man long list which was submitted to FIFA last Monday.’

Talk about burying the lede: Ollie Watkins on the 55-man long list?! That’s a stunning leak – sorry, whisper.

Neville’s advocate

‘Pep Guardiola ‘extremely disappointed’ as Gary Neville stunned over Man City leak’ – Daily Mirror website.

What an unavoidable shame that the headline implies some sort of Guardiola silence-breaking, when in reality it’s Neville who thinks Pep will be “extremely disappointed”.

The tabloidian struggle with how and when to use quote marks properly continues apace.

Photo finish

As breakers of the Guardiola news, the MailOnline are having their usual fun.

They have procured pictures of Guardiola on Tuesday morning ‘in his own branded jacket – hours before Arsenal could win the title if his team slip up’.

That is indeed the story: man seen out walking in public. Or rather ‘Pep Guardiola breaks cover after bombshell news Man City manager will LEAVE club at end of the season’.

Manchester City literally play a game on Tuesday evening. It’s quite important for him to be there. Him going to work is hardly ‘breaking cover’.

And did Guardiola really ‘appear sombre as he stepped away from his electric BYD car’? Or do the two pictures ‘exclusively obtained by Daily Mail Sport’ resemble any other human trying to ignore the cameras shoved in their face on a miserable Tuesday morning?