And then there were two. As the clock ticked down at St Mary’s Stadium on Saturday night even the stray yellow balloons on the pitch had begun to take on a weirdly mocking quality.

The balloons were almost too much, like metaphors-for-hire in an arthouse film, popping up in shot every time Arsenal tried to transform another spell of mechanical pressure into creative, incisive football. Your dreams? Your dreams are just air inside a polymer shell. Your dreams are a squeaky veneer. Even when you try to take agency over your dreams, or at least stamp on them before a set piece, they will scoot away and bobble about annoyingly near the corner flag.

If it is any consolation in defeat, Arsenal can still achieve something unprecedented this season. No English side has won a quadruple. But nobody has surely ever blown a quadruple quite like this, either. Six games to lose them all. Carabao Cup final. Check. FA Cup exit at Southampton. Got it. We’re two from two right now.

Lose at home against Bournemouth on Saturday. Lose against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium a week later. That’s the nine-point lead in the league all but gone....