Arsenal are still Premier League title favorites, and here's why

There was a telling moment just after the final whistle of Arsenal's 2-1 defeat against Manchester City on Sunday - a result that has left Mikel Arteta's team fearing yet another failure to go the distance in the Premier League title race.

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice is crouched down, contemplating the defeat, when he looks up to teammate Martin Ødegaard, shakes his head and says, "Eh? It's not done."

The inference from the brief snapshot is that Arsenal captain Ødegaard had lost belief in his team's title hopes and had indicated that to Rice, who responded with the defiant message that, with five games still to play, Arsenal can still emerge as champions.

This title race is going down to the wire. 👊 pic.twitter.com/XHITjrssy9

In his postmatch news conference, Arteta echoed Rice's comments by saying that his players are "more convinced" they can win the league after going so close to securing a positive result at the Etihad Stadium.

Arsenal did go close. An Eberechi Eze shot that hit the post and a stoppage-time Kai Havertz header over the City crossbar were examples of the fine margins that denied Arsenal a draw, or even a victory, that would have put them firmly in control of the title race.

When the dust settled after the game, the question that will have irked Arteta and his players all the way back to London will have been, "Why did we not play like this when losing at home to Bournemouth last week?"

Those back-to-back league defeats against Bournemouth and City, preceded by a costly 2-2 draw at Wolves, have potentially ruined Arsenal's title hopes, but there are positives to be drawn from the performance at the Etihad and enough reasons to justify Rice's assertion to Ødegaard that the race for the title really is "not done."

If Arsenal can replicate the tenacity, confidence and second-half ambition that they displayed against City, the title race will go down to the final day of the season because we now have a goal chase between the two sides, and the Gunners have every reason to be optimistic about that playing out in their favor.

Although Arteta's side has now lost four of its past six games in all competitions -- two in the league, one in the Carabao Cup and one in the FA Cup -- the Bournemouth loss last week was their first Premier League defeat since January.

Since that loss to Manchester United, Arsenal's league form had been on a par with City until losing to Bournemouth and Guardiola's team. Their longest winning run was four games -- the same as City's best sequence -- and both City and Arsenal have scored 20 goals in their past 10 league games.

So the winning machine built by Guardiola in years gone by, when City would surge to the title with a rampant run of victories, is not quite as formidable this time around.

Even though they have lost two and drawn one of their past three league games, Arsenal are still top and will only surrender first place on goal difference if City win their game in hand away to relegation-threatened Burnley on Wednesday.

So Rice and Arteta are right to insist that the title race is not over, but the onus is now on Arsenal to capitalize on the chance that they still have and outscore City during the run-in.

Only three points and one goal separate the two sides after Sunday's result. Any win for City at Turf Moor would take them top by virtue of scoring more goals than the Gunners, so the hope for Arsenal will be that Guardiola's players don't win by an emphatic margin.

But if the goal-difference gap is no more than three or four goals in City's favor after the Burnley game, Arsenal's remaining fixtures would tilt the odds towards the Premier League trophy heading to the Emirates rather than the Etihad next month.

All five of Arsenal's remaining league games are in London -- three home fixtures against Newcastle, Fulham and Burnley and away games at West Ham and Crystal Palace. Meanwhile, City must travel to Everton and Bournemouth as well as host Brentford, Palace and Aston Villa at the Etihad.

All of Arsenal's remaining games are against teams in the bottom half of the table, while four of City's fixtures are against sides still chasing European qualification in the top half, so the schedule facing Guardiola's players is much tougher.

With both sides chasing the title, it is not unrealistic to assume that they will each win all five of their remaining games, but Arsenal's fixture list would appear to yield a greater opportunity to score goals.

It might even all come down to which team records the biggest win against Burnley, who have the worst defensive record in the league this season, having conceded 67 goals in 33 games to date.

So, for all those Arsenal supporters now believing that the title has gone and that there will be an inevitable City procession to glory, don't wave the white flag just yet.

The task is simple: five more wins and plenty of goals.