The Gunners were defeated by the reigning Premier League champions late on Saturday, and the national media lamented their fate.
Arsenal were defeated 2-1 late on Saturday by Manchester City in a contentious match at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners had put in an impressive first-half performance in north London, with Bukayo Saka giving them a deserved lead before the break.
However, Pep Guardiola's men turned the game on its head in the second half, with Riyad Mahrez equalizing via a contentious penalty before Spanish midfielder Rodri steered home a stoppage-time winner for the visitors.
The result was, nonetheless, predictable: City now leads the Premier League by 11 points ahead of Sunday's clash between Chelsea and Liverpool, and only two teams in Premier League history have had a greater margin at the top on January 1.
Even so, this was a close call, and when Mikel Arteta takes a reflective walk around his garden, this performance – particularly the first half – will provide much encouragement. Much of it was lost in the end in the debate over referee Stuart Attwell's and his VAR Jarred Gillett's decisions, which became more problematic as the post-interviews shed more light on them.
One can only hope that the Arteta home has thick walls. Arsenal's manager, who had stated that he would "need a big room" to watch this game from home, must have been gnawing at them after an unruly, fractious affair in which his players deserved to win.
The fact that they had nothing to show for it was due to a five-minute whirlwind of errors and poor decision-making that did a disservice to an otherwise exceptional performance.
Arsenal will no doubt look back with regret on a remarkable second-half passage of play that saw their match against Manchester City dramatically turn on its head.
The Gunners had dominated the first half, leading the champions 1-0 at the break thanks to Bukayo Saka's strike, and had also been denied a penalty after Ederson's challenge on Martin Odegaard.
However, after referee Stuart Attwell overturned his original decision following Granit Xhaka's tackle on Bernardo Silva, City were given the opportunity to equalize from the spot 10 minutes into the second half.
Following the delay while Attwell checked the monitor, Mahrez equalised from the spot in the 57th minute, before boos rang out in the Emirates Stadium, with fans angry that the challenge on Odegaard was not checked in the same way. But that was just the start of the four-minute drama.
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