Chased down by serial winners, Arsenal’s race is finally run

I n recent months Mikel Arteta has, on occasion, brought a young olive tree into team meetings. It resembles a bigger equivalent that stands outside the manager’s office, whose occupant cites it as a club symbol and an exemplar of the need for sound roots. On a warm mid-May evening, Arsenal’s title pretensions were finally lost in the forest: it was the Tricky Trees, nourished by a relentlessly positive home environment, who handed Manchester City the most bloodless of triumphs while guaranteeing their own survival.

Such a low-key coronation befits what this title race ultimately became: City, operating at a consistent high-tempo purr with which nobody else can live, are lusciously accomplished serial winners who nonetheless fail to warm the blood of many neutrals. Arsenal, whose polarity between giddying highs and plunging lows is still that little bit too pronounced, could not keep up but it is hard to imagine a side that could. Arteta will privately have hated such a flat day’s work but he has created a team of vast potential whose point, in finishing second, remains well stated.

In truth Arsenal had already grieved the demise of their dash for the top. That process began before last Sunday’s evisceration by Brighton at an Emirates Stadium that Arteta noted had been muted before kick-off. Their performance here, neither terrible nor remotely stirring, was similarly low-key. If their starting XI had an end-of season look, Arteta could point out defensive injuries had forced his hand significantly. He had preached the game’s importance and you sensed he meant it: even though City have outsprinted Arsenal, running them as close as possible would constitute a badge of honour.

Arteta spent the early part of last week