Arsenal set for six-year Premier League dominance as VAR and Guardiola bottle it

Assuming six years is the going rate for Pep Guardiola disciples to turn losers into Premier League champions, Arsenal are set for an extended period of dominance of the English top flight.

After taking charge of the Gunners in December 2019, Mikel Arteta has Arsenal on the brink of Premier League glory in 2026 after victory over Burnley on Monday put them five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table.

City need to beat Bournemouth on Tuesday to take the title race to the final day, when their result against Aston Villa will be immaterial if Arsenal beat Crystal Palace, who will have an eye-and-a-half on the Conference League final three days later, as Adam Wharton warned over the weekend.

“We’re not deciding the title next week; there have been 37 games this season. We have another game a few days after [the Conference League final],” he said.

“We’re not looking at trying to beat them so that they don’t win [the title]. That is none of our concern. We are focusing on ourselves and making sure we’re in the right position for the following Wednesday.”

It’s all over, folks.

It was over before this game, really. Already-relegated Burnley were never likely to put the willies up a revitalised Arsenal side, for whom claims of bottling this title now feel like a very long time ago.

There was some tension before Kai Havertz leapt high above the Burnley defence to head Arsenal in front, but nothing compared to what the Gunners players were subjected to in the Emirates anxiety pit at their lowest confidence ebb a month or so ago when they lost consecutive games, to Bournemouth and then Man City.

There was an overriding feeling of patience among both the players and the fans; an acceptance that the goal would come. The problem was, or rather could have been, that Arsenal failed to kill the game off.

It was very fitting that the goal came from a corner and that Bukayo Saka delivered it.

Arteta dropping Declan Rice into the No.6 role has been key to Arsenal’s uptick of late. This was just the second game Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard have started in midfield together ahead of him and Arsenal have had far more about them with Rice dictating play and forcing his teammates to attack by driving them forward from the base of midfield.

But the return of ‘the real’ Starboy Saka has been just as significant. The delivery from the corner was delicious but his all-round game looks to be back to somewhere near its best.

He could easily have had a penalty after being denied a tap-in when his legs got tangled with a Burnley defender, in one of those that wasn’t given but would have stood had it been. And Gary Neville described his ability to take the ball with his back foot as “a joy” when one such instance led him to curl a shot just wide of the post. His improvement has arrived just in time for Arsenal and is a huge boon for Thomas Tuchel and England ahead of the World Cup.

Aside from an Eze header directed at the back of a Burnley defender, Arsenal never really looked like scoring again, but as nerves inevitably set in as the game wore on while the hosts retained their slender lead, the Gunners fans chewing fingernails should have felt comfortable on an evening when the gods were evidently shining down upon them as Havertz provoked one of Neville’s sexy guttural noises shortly after news broke of Pep Guardiola’s imminent exit from Man City.

“Ooo – I don’t like that from Havertz,” Neville said. “He could be in trouble The height of it and the fact it is on the standing leg. Vicious from Havertz. He is miles away from the ball.”

For reasons unbeknownst to anyone but him, Havertz looked to rock the title boat by inexplicably raking his studs down the back of Lesley Ugochukwu’s calf; for reasons unbeknownst to anyone but the VAR official himself, James Bell looked at those images and decided a yellow card would do.

“It’s so high,” Ben White told Havertz on the pitch after the game. He’s a lucky, lucky boy and while it may not have mattered as Burnley are and were toothless, also, it might have mattered, and City fans watching will have been hugely frustrated if they weren’t crying and reflecting on a decade of glory under their soon-to-depart manager.

The Daily Mail broke the news as the game was getting underway and The Athletic’s David Ornstein later confirmed that ‘Pep Guardiola is to leave position as Manchester City manager at end of this season’.

And if that wasn’t a big enough boost for Arsenal, who would have feared a wounded Guardiola with a City squad ready to reclaim their Premier League title next term after being denied it for two years on the trot, Ornstein also confirmed that Guardiola’s former assistant, Enzo Maresca, is set to replace him at the Etihad.

Arsenal know better than anyone how long it takes for a Guardiola apprentice to win the Premier League title. City are now set for their next top flight gong in 2032 based on the precedent set by Arteta, who can now enjoy a period of Guardiola-like dominance at the Emirates thanks to all their other rivals’ excellent work to deny themselves a place in any title race.

Liverpool are persisting with a failing manager in a desperate bid to prove that they’re better than everyone else by not wielding the axe when required, Manchester United have made another ill-advised vibes appointment and while Chelsea may have got it right with Xabi Alonso, they’re still owned by BlueCo and thus doomed to perpetual rebuilds.

And so while Arsenal’s immediate future looks bright with a Premier League title and possible Champions League on the horizon, so too does their long-term future after Guardiola’s bombshell bolt from the Sky Blues.