There is a particular cruelty to the way Manchester City are surrendering this title race. Not in a single capitulation — not in one vanishing act — but in a slow, grinding accumulation of moments that should have been claimed and weren't. Saturday night at the London Stadium offered at least four of them, and Pep Guardiola's side left with one point.

Only four days after being dismantled 3-0 by Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, City arrived in east London knowing that anything other than a win would push Arsenal's lead into the kind of territory from which returns are made of myth and memory. For half an hour they were the sharper side, and when Bernardo Silva took a pass from Marmoush in the tightest of positions on the six-yard box and looped an audacious effort over Mads Hermansen, it was hard to tell whether the Portuguese had meant it or simply found the top corner by accident. Either way, it was exactly what City needed.

They kept it for four minutes. Jarrod Bowen's corner from the right was met by Konstantinos Mavropanos at the far post, who headed it off the underside of the bar and in. The goal stood. The London Stadium erupted. And from that moment, the night became a study in how to fail to win a football match in every conceivable way.

Erling Haaland — reportedly seconds from being substituted before a 62nd-minute chance reprieved him — was presented with the game on a plate six minutes later when Doku checked inside and rolled the ball to the Norwegian on the penalty spot. He pulled his shot wide. The stadium's collective intake of breath was sharp enough to change the air pressure. Guardiola had been on the phone in the stand for most of the second half. You could see from his expression he had run out of words.

City hit the junction of post and crossbar through a Reijnders free kick in the 84th minute. In the fourth minute of added time, Marc Guehi — six yards out, ball at his feet — leaned back and shanked into the night sky. Doku couldn't break Wan-Bissaka. Hermansen gathered everything else.

West Ham are out of the relegation zone. Arsenal are nine points clear. The gap is not mathematically insurmountable — ten games remain — but it increasingly feels like it. City have played one more game. They face Real Madrid at the Etihad in the Champions League next week needing three goals. Their season is now being fought on two fronts, and on both, the tide is running against them.