Arsenal's 6-0 beating on Saturday at Stamford Bridge pushed the team into fourth place and put their title dreams in serious peril.
"This defeat is my fault, I take full responsibility for it," said manager Arsene Wenger after the loss according to ESPN. "I don' t think there's too much need to talk about the mistakes we made.
"Yes, of course it's one of the worst days [in my career]. It's over after 20 minutes and it's a long game after that. You don't prepare all week to experience that kind of experience."
Chelsea scored twice in the opening 10 minutes and a penalty goal (and controversial red card that was given to the wrong man) by Eden Hazard before the 20 minute mark essentially but a stamp on things. But the afternoon only got worse for Wenger's men as the game went along.
Does the team have any hopes of winning the Premier League title after a promising start to the season?
The good news for Arsenal is that the club no longer has to visit the top three sides in the league. The team was destroyed by Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in its three away games against those teams. Shockingly, the team beat Liverpool twice at home (one of those matches was in the FA Cup) and drew with Chelsea, making it easy to infer two things. The talent gap between Arsenal and the top sides is not that huge. The second thing that can be inferred is that Arsenal has a tough time in major matches against top teams; this has to be a mental situation that is essentially negating the first inference. There simply is no way to explain Jekyll and Hyde of this team in away stadiums against top teams. One could argue that this has more to do with Arsenal playing well early on and simply regressing to its usual mediocrity in the more recent away games.
This has huge implications for the remainder of the season as Arsenal has a number of top sides to take on. Arsenal only has three remaining away games at Hull City, Norwich City and Everton. The Everton game comes last and is the biggest of the three. Everton is in a battle for a top six finish; the team played Arsenal to a 1-1 draw earlier this year and could take down the Gunners at home.
However the bigger game is the home match against Manchester City. City is poised to win the title if it can win its remaining matches. However, Arsenal needs to avoid the same 6-3 drubbing at home that it received at the Ethiad earlier this year. This is a huge game for Arsenal and it needs to show its home fans that it is capable of stepping up in a big moment; the 6-0 and 5-1 defeats against Chelsea and Liverpool came after that 6-3 loss against City, so it is possible that that loss was the first to make the side question itself. Prior to that defeat, Arsenal was in the drivers' seat as far as the title race. It has not been the same team since.
Can Arsenal still win the title?