After the hurt lifts, Arsenal must ask, what do they want to be? What can they be?

It is not like Mikel Arteta to look dejected. It doesn’t happen often. But as a symbol of all the Arsenal feelings that smothered those within the Emirates Stadium yesterday, there he was, a slightly hollowed-out version of his usual punchy self. Absorbing a game he felt obligated to apologise for, he looked more hurt than he has at any point this season. It would take a few days, he admitted, for this to sink in. 

It is — barring the kind of ultra-miracle that almost never happens — the end of the road for this adventure. At times uplifting, intoxicating, reviving, there were too many bumps to keep up with the monster truck. In the age of the 90-plus point Premier League title, Manchester City demand that any challenger makes almost no mistakes. Arsenal had that swagger for the first half of the season, but were not able to keep their foot down. They lost control on a couple of nasty turns near the end. 

Arteta being Arteta, he will not be demoralised for long. He is far too competitive, too demanding, too ambitious for that. Soon the detailed analysis, the search for new answers and fresh ideas, will be rattling through his brain. Conversations with his coaching staff, with the recruitment team, with the owners, will be forensic, in the bid to come back stronger. 

The crux is this: What do Arsenal want to be? What can they be?

Was this a one-hit wonder Premier League challenge or can they set themselves up to go better (as Liverpool did in 2019-20 on the back of a painfully close miss the previous season)? Might they even become capable of competing over a series of years?

Those questions rest with those above Arteta in the club hierarchy. Josh Kroenke was over from America and in attendance for Sunday’s home game against Brighton. At the end of the match, sharing that look of disappointment, he left his seat in the directors’ box and climbed the stairs out of the arena. There is a lot to take stock of. Essentially, it burns because they flew so close to the sun, which in itself was a breathtaking ride. 

This season defied expectation, with a young team that sewed up a Champions League return after six years away, secured second place, and through aesthetically joyful football recreated what the club represent locally and globally. To push on from this requires owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) to back Arteta even more. 

He has already built a vastly improved team compared to the one he inherited. The very first matchday squad he selected included the following, all of whom are no longer at Arsenal: Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, David Luiz, Lucas Torreira, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Emiliano Martinez, Shkodran Mustafi, Dinos Mavropanos, Nicolas Pepe, Joe Willock, Matteo Guendouzi and Alexandre Lacazette. 

There is some talent within that list, yet there is no disputing the evolution that has been engineered since. Arteta has remodelled Arsenal into a younger, hungrier, more cohesive group with one of his favourite words — unity — at the heart of it. Now the goal is to build again, to upgrade even more. 

In the heat of the moment, although he wanted to take responsibility for the crushing 3-0 defeat, Arteta gave the impression that what he witnessed yesterday will colour his view on how certain players handled recent weeks.

“We fought really hard to be in the position that we are in and today we were in a critical moment to keeping hoping and digging for that dream,” Arteta said. “When you have to play in these moments, you cannot do what we did in the second half. Then we have to look. If a team is capable of doing that when it comes to the biggest stage, there’s a lot of things to analyse and think about, because it cannot happen.”

There is the potential for some substantial juggling.

Looking across the squad, there are a variety of players whose futures are unclear. Some will be sold to raise funds for the next-level talents Arteta has identified to help his team take another step forward — such as Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo, for example.

Arsenal have some bargaining power when it comes to raising money or player exchanges. Some of Kieran Tierney, Rob Holding, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Granit Xhaka, Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun won’t be on the payroll next season. 

Is it possible to build a team to compete with the current set-up at Manchester City? Arsenal have to believe they can, however hard that felt deep into Sunday night, and this morning, and probably a bit more beyond after Brighton’s strategic excellence left them chased down and chastened. 

Arteta bemoaned the lack of flow. Arsenal made weird errors at the back and fizzed shots just wide down the other end. Nothing went right for a team who have done a lot brightly this season. “We have to apologise to our people, especially for the second half,” Arteta said. Well, maybe some of those in the crowd who left early could also say sorry as the players deserved more than abandonment in a horrible moment. 

Of course it crushes the spirit. The queue for the Tube was already building before the third goal went in during added time. The sound of Brighton fans olé-ing before the final whistle taunted those who had stayed. Come the end, Ben White sank to his haunches. Gabriel Magalhaes froze, hands on hips, before recovering enough to wipe his face with his shirt. Bukayo Saka was lost in a thousand-yard stare.

It is not quite post-mortem time but this felt like the last rites on title aspirations.

On the list of issues to resolve are the number of goals conceded at home, individual errors, which have multiplied in recent weeks, and the option of a more authentically positioned centre-forward. Hoiking long passes at Gabriel Jesus, who prefers to drop and dart around deeper or wider positions, was not effective against Brighton, or City. Will Arsenal follow the Erling Haaland/Darwin Nunez trend? It is food for thought at least, as a possible option.

The second half of the season evidently caught up with Arsenal.

No doubt Arteta will reflect upon their worst run of form at the most testing moment of the season. Nine points from the last 21 available demonstrates starkly that this squad was not equipped to cope with the run-in. Some significant injuries, notably to William Saliba and the first-choice deputy to fill in on the right side of defence, Tomiyasu at full- or centre-back, really bit hard. Other important players just lost a touch of form, so costly as City applied the pressure. 

The first-choice XI barely dropped points all season. The niggles began to show through the combination of injuries and fatigue — a lack of rotation unless necessary was a feature of this season and may be one of the aspects Arteta contemplates and tweaks for future campaigns. 

After the hurt lifts, Arsenal will realise what giant strides they made this season. They were remarkable Premier League pacesetters, hitting 50 points at halfway.

Some individuals, excelling within the team framework, sparkled better than ever before. Martin Odegaard, Saka and Gabriel Martinelli produced exceptional numbers and performances. Saliba and Gabriel combined to give Arsenal a robust foundation which blended aggression with calmness, power with recovery pace. Aaron Ramsdale cemented his position as a top goalkeeper capable of wondersaves. 

“We will have to digest and take a few days,” Arteta said. He recognises this season has given him more conviction about what he wants to do going forward. “In a sense, yes. But with the level that is required for the Premier League and to fight for the Champions League, the way we have to fight for the Champions League, there’s a lot to think about.”

(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)