BBC
Arsenal revelled in a scene of high anticipation when they walked out to face Aston Villa but were left looking at a sea of empty red seats 90 minutes later as the Premier League title race took a potentially pivotal twist.
The title pursuit is nowhere near over with only two points separating the top three, but there is an ominously familiar feel to Manchester City's presence at the top of the table when the pressure valve is tightened.
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It was all so different before Sunday's late kick-off...Arsenal's supporters trooped in to the Emirates buoyed by the favour Palace had bestowed on them...
Liverpool looked leggy and stripped of their usual intensity in the 1-0 defeat by Palace, showing all the signs of running out of gas...
However, the hope engendered by Liverpool's loss actually seemed counter-productive for Arsenal, with nerves sweeping around the Emirates in double-quick time when an early breakthrough did not materialise.
The noise at times smacked of desperation, of fear that old failings might come back for a side who were chased down so ruthlessly by City last season.
They did.
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Arsenal's performance carried all the hallmarks of a team weighed down by the pressure on them to deliver, as they fell to their first league defeat since being beaten 2-1 by Fulham on New Year's Eve.
Arsenal: Team January
It is a long time since the Gunners showed nerves such as this and looked so shaky for so long. ...
Was it nerves? Was it pressure? It certainly looked like it.
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When Ollie Watkins added a second...all hope was lost among Arsenal's supporters, with thousands heading for the exits and clearly having no belief in a comeback.
[It must have been like what? A library. The Highbury Library! London football like college tackle football in the northeastern United States is effete, elite, soft. You want real college tackle football you go to the Southeastern Conference. In Merry Ol', if you want hard, “ruthless” soccer, you go to the Northwest, to the old great industrial centers, Manchester and Slaverpool, hardscrabble, bare-knuckled, and fearless. You don't go to a bank. What is London but a big bank?]
Arsenal's players looked leggy and jaded for most of the second half and exhausted by the end.
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The Gunners looked tight and tense as they saw their hopes of victory edging away ...
Will we look back on this as the day when the Premier League title tide turned? [Yes] The moment when City's relentlessness finally took its toll on Arsenal and Liverpool? [Yes]
