Arsenal prove Tottenham favourite Jamie O’Hara wrong despite ‘bottling’ title

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reviews the Brighton game

Arsenal have proven former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara incorrect despite all but ending their Premier League title chances. Back in March, O’Hara pinpointed three dates on which he believed would be critical to the Gunners ‘bottling’ their battle with Manchester City. 

A first top-flight triumph since 2004 seemed a strong possibility when Arsenal maintained their five-point lead over City on March 12. The Gunners easily dismantled Fulham in a 3-0 victory, while their title rivals squeezed past Crystal Palace earlier that weekend thanks to an Erling Haaland penalty. 

However, a run of poor results saw City leapfrog Arsenal towards the end of April. Sunday’s 3-0 defeat by Brighton all but ended their chances of winning the league. 

O’Hara, though, was incorrect in pinpointing matches against Chelsea and Newcastle as games when Arsenal would lose their grip on the title. Making his prediction back in March, the 36-year-old believed Mikel Arteta’s side would ‘bottle’ the league in fixtures against City, Chelsea and Newcastle – but Arsenal ended up winning the latter two matches. 

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He told TalkSPORT at the time: “I think Man City will still win. We’ve had a tweet come in and this is exactly what I think, ‘City stay in touch with Arsenal until the last five games of the season, the Gunners will bottle it’, and I think the same thing.

“You stay in touching distance with Arsenal, five points, three points, they’ve got to play each other. Man City need to beat Arsenal, that’s in six games’ time. After that you’ve got five games left.

“If Man City beat Arsenal, they’re in touching distance with five games to go, who’s going to have the experience, who’s going to have the bottle? Man City have been there all before.

“There’s a lot of football still to play. They’ve still got to play Man City, and then after they play Man City, they’ve got to play Chelsea, who have pulled it together, then they’ve got to play Newcastle away.

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“Alright, three huge games, where in my opinion, Arsenal will bottle the title. That week there, April 29 to May 6, that is when Arsenal are going to lose the league.”

Instead, it was draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, and defeats by City and Brighton, that have caused the most damage to Arsenal’s title challenge.

Arteta reflected on Sunday: “A really different feeling to the feeling that we all had last Sunday when we felt proud and we felt that we really did what we needed to win in certain moments. Today is completely the opposite. We have to apologise to our people, especially for the second half.

“At the moment it’s just frustration. The feeling that we gave the game away second half. We fought really hard to be in the position that we are in. Today we were in a critical moment to keep hoping for that dream.”

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