Where the Gunners misfired with title shot all but over

Arsenal's 3-0 loss to Brighton has all but ended their Premier League title challenge.

Second-half strikes from Julio Enciso, Deniz Undav and Pervis Estupinan secured a deserved away victory for the Seagulls.

Manchester City now need to win just one of their remaining three matches against Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford to claim the crown for a third consecutive season.

The Gunners cannot finish lower than second in the table, but there is no hiding from the fact that this campaign will go down as a missed opportunity.

We take a look at where it went wrong for Mikel Arteta and his young set of players.

Injuries

Gabriel Jesus' serious knee injury at the 2022 World Cup surprisingly did not derail Arsenal's momentum but the same cannot be said about the absences of William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Both defenders got injured in the Europa League second-leg defeat to Sporting Lisbon in March and without them the team's lack of depth has been exposed.

Saliba's composure at the back has been particularly missed. No player in the squad with 20 or more league appearances this season possesses a higher passing accuracy than the Frenchman (91.04%).

As for Tomiyasu, his ability to play either at right-back or centre-back was desperately needed in recent weeks. The ex-Bologna man also ranks highest at the club for tackles made per 90 minutes (3.72).

Arteta's stubbornness

Arteta has masterminded an exceptional season at Arsenal overall but the Basque boss is certainly not blameless when it comes to recent issues either.

The absences of Saliba and Tomiyasu saw the Spaniard turn to Rob Holding to marshal the defensive unit alongside Gabriel and the ex-Bolton ace's lack of mobility seriously impacted the team.

January signing Jakub Kiwior should have been called upon far sooner, with the Pole a standout performer in the 3-1 victory over Chelsea and the 2-0 win away at Newcastle.

Arteta's call to hand the experienced Jorginho very limited game time until after the 4-1 hammering at City was also a strange one, especially given Thomas Partey's showings against West Ham and Southampton.

Player decline

In the business end of a season, you need your big players to step up — and that has not been the case to a degree at Arsenal.

Bukayo Saka's form has declined quite dramatically. In the Gunners' first 28 league games of the season, the Englishman scored 12 goals and registered 10 assists. 

In the last eight, he has been involved in just two (one goal, one assist).

Arsenal have not really dealt with Partey's dip in performance either. It is no coincidence that without the midfielder enforcer at his best in the last eight Premier League fixtures, Aaron Ramsdale has kept just one of his 13 clean sheets.

Arteta's side picked up only four wins over those matches, which is simply not good enough up against City in a title run-in.