Arsenal's 2-1 loss at the Etihad on Sunday extended a four-match domestic losing streak — the first under Mikel Arteta and a franchise first since the final Unai Emery months. [1] Manchester City sit three points back with a game in hand and a plus-goal-difference advantage against Burnley on Wednesday. [2] The paper's Sunday Premier League decider piece treated Arteta's April percentage — 42.3% career against Guardiola's 79.5% — as the forensic fact. Monday adds the explanation.

It is not tactical. Arteta's setup at the Etihad was aggressive: Odegaard, Eze, Madueke behind Kai Havertz. The chances were there. Eze hit the post. Gabriel's header hit the post. Havertz was denied on a breakaway. [3] The difference was a center forward who converted his one chance versus a midfielder playing as a nine who did not. Erling Haaland's 23rd league goal of the season arrived after Arsenal had the better of twenty minutes. [2] The BBC's April pattern study is the receipt. In 32 Premier League Aprils under Guardiola, City have won 28. [4]

The paper's position is that this is structural, not psychological. Gabriel Jesus has been injured since January. Kai Havertz is not a nine. Viktor Gyökeres, the summer signing meant to solve this, has logged fourteen minutes in his last two substitutions. The one position on the pitch where City have spent — £80 million more on wages than Arsenal does, by the Independent's accounting [3] — is the one position in which the Etihad match was decided. Five games remain. The title is not lost. But the absence of a Premier League goal from any Arsenal number nine before Havertz's Sunday deflection is not a slump. It is the position.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos