Arsenal have not had the look of a Premier League title-winning team all season long, and Mikel Arteta will now be privately accepting that the Gunners will not be usurping Liverpool at the top of the table, according to Charles Watts.
The North London giants now have a daunting 11-point deficit to overturn following Saturday's gut-wrenching 1-0 home loss to West Ham United, as Jarrod Bowen consigned the Gunners to their first home defeat of the Premier League season.
Arne Slot's men took full advantage of Arsenal's slip-up by slaying Manchester City 2-0 the next day, and even though the Reds have played a game more than the capital side, Watts cannot see any way back for Arteta's injury-hit squad.
"Yes, I think so," Watts told Sports Mole when asked if the title race was over. "Honestly, I think it was over beforehand. You always had a little bit of hope when the gap wasn't huge, but with the way Liverpool have been playing and how stretched Arsenal have been, I just didn't see Arsenal putting themselves in a position to take advantage of any slip up that Liverpool were going to have.
"The performance we saw against West Ham, it felt inevitable at some point those sort of games were going to happen just because of the limited options Arsenal have up front. In a way, it happened against Leicester the week before, but they managed to get away with it because of Mikel Merino coming off the bench and rescuing them.
"But you can't rely on that happening week in, week out for the final three months of the season. A midfielder is just not going to be your saviour as a striker. So it felt inevitable. But having said that, that didn't diminish the level of disappointment of the performance. It was bitterly disappointing."
Can Arsenal still pull off 1998-style turnaround?
While Arsenal do not have injuries going for them at present, the Gunners have previous when it comes to overhauling Premier League champions-elect, having reined in Manchester United in the 1997-98 season after being 12 points behind in February.
That year, Arsene Wenger's crop won 10 games on the bounce from March 11 to May 3 to remarkably dethrone Sir Alex Ferguson's team, and 27 years later, Arteta has insisted that he will throw Arsenal's title chances down the drain 'over his dead body'.
However, while Arsenal had Nicolas Anelka, Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars working in tandem in 1998, Arteta is now being forced to field Merino up front due to Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz's injuries.
As a result, Watts has poured cold water over hopes of a 1998 repeat, saying: "Arsenal just don't have those players now. You've got a central midfielder playing up front, a 17-year-old playing on the right, a left winger [Leandro Trossard] who's been desperately out of form for the majority of the season, your playmaker who has scored two goals from open play in the Premier League.
"They just don't have the tools or weapons to be able to do what they would need to do. And even then you'd need Liverpool now to basically lose four games. They've only lost one all season in the league and there's only 12 games to go for them now. They've got to realistically lose a third of those games. It's just not going to happen.
"I fully expected Mikel to say the sort of things that he said, because he's got to really. Publicly, he's got to just to give his players some sort of belief, not necessarily to go on and win the league, but to still get something out of this season. Don't let it peter away in the Premier League.
Arteta "will accept" Premier League title is lost
© Iconsport
"I thought he would come out fighting and present this unified front of we're not waving a white flag yet, but realistically you get him off camera, I'm sure that he will accept now that the title isn't going to happen. It's never really felt all season like it's going to happen either.
"There's not really been that title-winning feel to this Arsenal team. They've struggled, they haven't played well. You can probably count on one hand how many games they've really played well in this season. There've been so many issues, suspensions, injuries that it's never really got any momentum. Last season it did, the season before that it did, but this season it's just been a grind from the start."
Unless Arsenal can channel the spirits of 1998, their run without a Premier League crown will stretch to 21 years, but it has not been for the want of trying from Arteta's squad for the last three seasons in particular.
The Gunners unexpectedly became genuine contenders in 2022-23, leading the way at the top for 248 days only to cede first place to Man City, the longest one side has spent at the summit of the Premier League without winning the title.
Last season, Arteta's squad pushed the Citizens all the way again as they broke Arsenal's club record for goals scored in a Premier League season, only to miss out on the title by an agonising two points.
While Watts feels that failure to win the league in 2024-25 would be more painful than the previous two campaigns, he was also keen to highlight how Liverpool have not been as decimated by injuries, as all of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz have not missed a single league game through a fitness issue this term.
Watts: 'Liverpool have not had to deal with Arsenal injuries'
© Imago
"I think so," he replied when asked if second place this season would be more painful than in 2022-23 and 2023-24. "The fact that City have slipped off and Arsenal haven't been the team to take advantage is disappointing, but you've got to hold your hands up and say Liverpool have been fantastic.
"They've lost one game, they've got the best player in the world producing the best individual Premier League season ever, potentially. And they've got a title winning players to fall back on as well as that, your centre-back partnership with Van Dijk and Konate, which is fantastic. Trent at right back, fantastic midfield, Salah supported by excellent forwards.
"They're a very good team. This stage last season, Liverpool were probably title favourites again, everyone was talking about Klopp was going to sign off with a quadruple. That obviously didn't happen, but this is a team that's consistently challenged for the title for years, it's not like they've come from nowhere. The fact that Slot's done it in his first season, credit to him, but he walked into a squad full of winners.
"I don't want to put the word luck out because it's not been lucky what Liverpool have done, but injuries-wise, they've definitely not had to deal with what the other teams have had to. And they've taken advantage of that.
"If this was a team like Leicester coming through and winning the league like they did those few years ago, yes, I think the feeling of disappointment would be much, much more. But this is a very, very good Liverpool team of serial winners. I think it was a missed opportunity, but not a massive one."
Arsenal will be missing Saka, Martinelli, Havertz, Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu once again for Wednesday's game with Forest, as well as Myles Lewis-Skelly following his dismissal against West Ham at the weekend.
Ben Knapton
