Even though Man City went to the top of the Premier League on Wednesday, will their 1-0 win over Burnley turn out to be a missed opportunity for the league leaders?
Pep Guardiola’s mannerisms on the Turf Moor touchline suggested that may have been how he was thinking.
His job is to try to take advantage of Arsenal’s loss of confidence and go for our throat.
The Spaniard will be aware that he has made it easier for Mikel Arteta to motivate his squad and rebuild their self-belief.
Our manager would have assumed our rivals would have won by a bigger margin in midweek, especially after taking only five minutes to break the deadlock.
That would have meant the Gunners not only targeting victories in their final five league fixtures to become champions, but also carrying the extra concern of chasing down an unreachable goal difference.
Yet with Haaland scoring the only goal in Lancashire, our boss can now argue with a straight face to his dressing room that victories in their remaining games would give them an excellent chance of getting over the line.
That is because the first and second in England’s top division currently have identical points and goal difference.
What separates them at present is that the Sky Blues have scored three more goals.
Football is not played on paper, but it would appear that City have the harder run-in.
You would not expect them to win at Everton and Bournemouth by large margins.
Out of the top two, Arsenal against Burnley would be the most likely fixture to produce plenty of goals if there was one.
If we could return to our defensive best, clean sheets would be another way to take the lead in the goal difference column.
With one win in six, though, it would be arrogant to think about anything other than how we put a winning sequence together.
More specifically, how to perform under pressure and deal with anxiety.
We might not have the mental strength to do that, so not having to worry about goal difference can only help.
That is why Wednesday might turn out to be more important than some think.