Manchester City look to have done it again.

Pep Guardiola’s unstoppable machine are now surely overwhelming favourites to lift a third consecutive title, and a fifth in six years.

After occupying top spot for close to the entire season, it’s easy to see why Arsenal fans are disappointed.

However, some objectivity is important. Heading into the season if you’d offered any Arsenal fan a 2nd place finish they’d have snapped your hand off. It undoubtedly represents a huge improvement on recent seasons and fulfils Arsenals objective of a return to the Champions League.

It is hard to ignore the context, though. After such a phenomenal campaign in which a healthy lead at the top was built, how can it not feel like a season thrown away? How do Arsenal fans avoid thinking of the ‘what ifs’?

As with any failure in life, the key is in searching for the lessons learnt. This young Arsenal squad has tasted the extreme pressures of a title race, and tasted defeat along the way. Time will tell which players sit and sulk, and which players learn their lessons, stand up, and go again even harder.

There is no shame in losing out to this Manchester City side, but the manner of the capitulation cannot go unrecognised.

In my most recent post I talked about the fact that Arsenal don’t need to beat Liverpool, they don’t need to beat Man City - they only need to win the games they ‘should’ win. They’d built a strong enough lead to allow this. Dropped points against struggling West Ham and Southampton is unacceptable at this stage.

Manchester City themselves have dropped points to ‘lesser’ sides, however they have compensated this with a double over Arteta’s men. If Arsenal had won one of these head-to-heads, they might’ve gotten away with the recent draws.

This is the lesson to take forward. To win this title, you simply have to show up when it matters. If Arsenal can strengthen in the summer and return with a stronger mentality, there’s no reason why Arsenal can’t turn heartbreak into a stepping stone.