Are Arsenal actually going to 'bottle' the Premier League title race? Gunners in nervy position after Wolves draw

Molineux, Tuesday night: what should have been a coronation stroll for Arsenal turned into a cautionary tale of complacency and creeping self-doubt. Two goals to the good against the division’s bottom club, the league leaders were poised to open a seven-point gap over Manchester City and turn the title chase into a procession. Instead, they surrendered the advantage, conceded through Riccardo Calafiori’s stoppage-time own goal, and staggered away with only a point, their cushion trimmed to five and the narrative dial swinging sharply toward the one word no Arsenal side wants to hear: bottle.

The numbers are stark. Per Opta, no previous Premier League leader has ever failed to beat a relegation-zone side after leading by two goals. Wolves, marooned on ten points and 17 from safety, had won once all season. Yet the stingiest defence in the country, the same unit that navigated an immaculate Champions League group stage, could not survive the final barrage. Calafiori’s inadvertent finish capped a second half in which Arsenal mustered neither control nor conviction, a lapse Mikel Arteta labelled “well below the level required.”

The wider context is equally uncomfortable. Arsenal have taken ten points from the last 21 available, coughing up winning positions in three of their past five league outings: the 3-2 loss to Manchester United and draws at Brentford and now Wolves. During the same stretch, City have rediscovered momentum, winning back-to-back games including a late show at Anfield. The gap remains five points, but City hold a game in hand, likely to be played the week commencing 16 March, and the sides still meet at the Etihad on the weekend of 18-19 April in what increasingly feels like a straight shoot-out for the trophy.

Arteta’s men remain the division’s best at protecting leads—17 wins from 21 games when scoring first—but the recent wobble invites scrutiny. Eight of their victories this term have been by a single goal, three by two. Fine margins, usually papered over by late resilience, caught up with them in the West Midlands. The absence of a prolific No. 9 compounds the anxiety: top scorer Viktor Gyokeres has eight league goals, hardly the haul expected of a title spearhead. Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz have only just returned from injury; the latter is already sidelined again. Bukayo Saka, preferred in the central role ahead of Eberechi Eze at Molineux, is regaining sharpness after his own fitness issues.

Sunday’s north-London derby against Tottenham now looms as a season-defining test of nerve. Drop points again and the psychological terrain shifts; win and the old swagger may return. Aston Villa, eight behind with a game in hand, lurk as a third-party threat, yet the suspicion persists that this could be a championship nobody deserves to win. No side has managed the sort of relentless run that breaks the field in half, leaving Arsenal’s points on the board—however nervously obtained—as the most valuable currency in the race.

Arteta refused to panic, insisting “everybody wants to do their best” and warning against emotional recriminations that “damage the team.” He spoke, too, of the enjoyment found in surviving moments of suffering, but admitted the second-half display merited the late punishment. The manager’s challenge is to ensure Tuesday’s stumble is a jolt, not the beginning of a collapse.

History will not be kind if Arsenal allow another advantage to slip. City have specialised in hunting down leaders; the memory of last spring’s pursuit is fresh enough to haunt Emirates corridors. With 13 fixtures remaining, the margin for error has narrowed to zero. The question no longer centres on arithmetic but mentality: can Arsenal confront the accusation that haunts them every spring, or will the whispers of another capitulation become the soundtrack to a season that once promised so much?