You know that feeling when you're watching a horror movie and the killer just won't stay dead? Arsenal fans lived it on Wednesday night.
Two goals up against the Premier League's bottom club. Wolves. A team with only nine points all season. A team that is looking likely to be relegated at the end of the season, heading quietly to the Championship. Surely, surely, this was a formality.
Then the wheels fell off. Completely. Spectacularly. In slow motion.
Bukayo Saka had opened the scoring inside five minutes. Piero Hincapie, with his first for the club, made it 2-0 just after the hour. The title procession was rolling. The Arsenal end at Molineux was bouncing.
But football happened, it always has a sick sense of humour.
Hugo Bueno, a full-back who hadn't scored in 67 games, decided to channel his inner Ronaldinho with a 20-yard curler that left David Raya grasping at air. Hope flickered for Wolves. Panic flickered for Arsenal.
Then came the 94th minute. A hopeful ball into the box. A mix-up between Raya and Gabriel. A 19-year-old debutant called Tom Edozie, on for his first senior appearance, pouncing like he'd dreamed this moment a thousand times. The ball ricocheted off Riccardo Calafiori and into the net.
Cue absolute chaos. Wolves players mobbing their teenage hero. Arsenal players staring into the abyss. And 58 points somehow feel like zero.
The Fans: From Hope to Existential Dread
Within minutes, social media did what social media does best—turn pain into poetry.
One poor soul, speaking for an entire fanbase, posted: "Arsenal is a CIA experiment to see how far people can be pushed before straight up killing themselves."
Another, wiser and wearier, simply wrote: "It's the hope that kills you."
The meltdown was spectacular. "We are watching a meltdown of historic proportions happen in real time," one observer noted. "Wolves are rock bottom. Arsenal have a world-class squad... This Arsenal side will be the biggest bottlers top-flight football has ever seen."
The Pundits: 'Bottle Job' Claims on Full Blast
Alan Smith, the former Arsenal forward watching from the Sky Sports studio, looked like a man witnessing a car crash in slow motion.
"It feels like a pivotal moment, a vital one, maybe a turning point," he said quietly. "It's in Manchester City's hands now. With their experience and Guardiola's experience, they will really fancy it. They can almost feel the nerves of the Arsenal team watching that. Having been 2-0 up against the team rock bottom on nine points is just not good enough. It doesn't bode well."
Then came Paul Merson.
"I know Arsenal have been in this position three times before, but it might never happen again," he said, the weight of history in every word. "Now, all of a sudden, it's out of their hands after being so many points clear. It's full-on now, the 'bottle job' claims will be coming on full blast."
Three successive runners-up finishes. Two of them to the City. The ghosts are getting louder.
Arteta: 'Any Bullet, Take It'
In the midst of the wreckage, Mikel Arteta stood in the rain at Molineux and did something rare for a modern manager. He didn't make excuses.
"Any question, any criticism, any opinion, you have to take it on the chin today," he said, his voice flat with disappointment. "Any bullet, take it, because we didn't perform at the level that is required. Certain basics we have to do, we did them so poorly, one after the other."
He's right, of course. Arsenal have now won just two of their last seven league matches. They've dropped seven points from winning positions in 2026 alone—only Crystal Palace and West Ham have dropped more.
The stats are brutal. The optics are worse.
What Now?
Arsenal remain five points clear, but City have a game in hand and that small matter of a trip to the Etihad in April. The title, once firmly in Arsenal's grip, is now technically in City's hands.
Next up? A North London derby at Tottenham. Because of course it is.
One fan, perhaps speaking for millions, posted a simple image after the final whistle. It showed Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill. The caption read: "I've seen the script before."
For those who might not know the story, Greek god Zeus condemned Sisyphus to a never-ending punishment in Tartarus, the lowest level of Hades. Sisyphus was sentenced to spend eternity wrestling a giant boulder up a steep hill. Each time, just as the boulder was about to get to the top of the hill, ending his labour, it would slip from his grasp and roll back to the bottom. He would need to climb back down, get behind the boulder, and repeat the struggle of pointless, eternal labour. Could this also be Arsenal's story, getting close but never quite getting to the top?
