Manchester City inflicted Arsenal's worst first-half performance of the Premier League era on the Gunners with a breathtaking display in a 3-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday.
Leroy Sane helped to set up two brilliant goals for Bernardo and David Silva and scored the third himself as the champions-elect ran riot over Arsenal again, four days after Sunday's 3-0 Wembley win in the Carabao Cup final.
Arsenal had never conceded three goals before half-time at home in the Premier League before, but they were perhaps fortunate to escape without further punishment, with Petr Cech denying Sergio Aguero his 200th City goal.
3 - Arsenal have conceded three goals in the first half of a Premier League home game for the first time ever. Overwhelmed. pic.twitter.com/BGR7ok0X7f
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 1, 2018
Henrikh Mkhitaryan had urged Arsenal to "fight" for under-fire manager Arsene Wenger, but an awful defensive display will likely lead to fresh calls for the Frenchman to be replaced.
The result was City's biggest victory at Arsenal in any competition since a 4-0 win in November 1912. Furthermore, the match tied the record for Arsenal's worst loss at home in the Premier League, with the Gunners also falling by three-goal margins to Coventry in 1993, Middlesbrough in 2001 and Chelsea twice in 2009.
With seven defeats, Wenger's men also have lost more matches in all competitions in 2018 than any other Premier League team.
"Not a lot to talk about, it was a game with a team of top quality full of confidence, we are a bit low on confidence," Wenger told Sky Sports . "First half was difficult for us after what happened on Sunday.
"But they took advantage of our lack of confidence and I must say our team put a real physical effort in, technically as well. We are going through a difficult period, their quality made it difficult for us.
"It's tough but it's explainable by the fact [of] what happened on Sunday, the consequences of the hype about our performance, it hits you. But I think the players put in huge effort today and unfortunately we had some weak defending."
Arsenal — now sitting in sixth place, 10 points out of the top four — travel to face Brighton on Sunday before facing AC Milan next Thursday at the San Siro in the first leg of a Europa League last-16 clash.