Arsenal's Champions League hopes were dealt another blow after a wounding loss to Brighton, with Mikel Arteta admitting his side was on "the road to nowhere to go".
It is one defeat after another in less than a week - three of his last four, which have seen him give Tottenham the gift of advantage in the race for fourth.
Criminally, he has also given Manchester United a glimmer of hope, despite Ralph Rangnick's side taking just one point out of a possible six, including a loss to Everton earlier in the day.
This result from Goodison should have been a boost for Arteta's team before they even kicked off - knowing they could effectively kill one of their challengers.
Instead, he put on another monotonous performance - hot on the heels of the necklace at Crystal Palace on Monday - waiting until the closing stages to finally kick to life.
Arteta said: "For me it was a problem of attitude and courage that we showed to play and that was not our intention. I know it was not our intention to attack and provoke the situation.
“What happens now is that we criticize ourselves a lot, get slapped again because we deserve it. We were really poor again in the first half and we had to lift ourselves up because we know this road is not going to take us anywhere - especially where we want to be. We have everything we need to play in the last eight matches."
It is now a grim test of this young Arsenal team that just a few weeks ago provided so much reason for optimism.
Against the odds, he looked for a place in the top four that no one had predicted at the start of the season.
But a now largely encouraging campaign to blow it up will turn into a major disappointment.
This is one measure of the work Arteta has done for this position - but it is the hope that kills you.
It felt like an arsenal of old. They're bottling it up at a crucial stage of the campaign – and the damage this race causes can be felt for a long time to come.
How does Arteta pick up his players, restore confidence and keep them fighting for Champions League places?
Three of his next four matches are against teams around him – Chelsea, United and West Ham. Winning next week's match with Southampton has become very important now.
It's up to Arteta to prove he's creating something new - something different - and they can arrest a slide that threatens to completely derail their campaign.
Based on this evidence, this is going to be a painful end to the season.
They were completely lifeless and unaware in the first half, with Brighton taking the lead after 29 minutes through Leandro Trossard.
It was a brilliant goal - but the way Arsenal's defenders were completely knocked out by Enock Mwepu's cutback was amateurish.
Trossard simply checked his run inside the box to leave him completely free and from there he chose his spot.
Gabriel Martinelli's header at the stroke of half-time would have stood - instead of being dismissed for offside after a long VAR check - it would have flattered Arsenal.
While the home team improved after the break, they made up almost nothing for the majority of the half and went down 2–0 with a similarly weak defense.
Once again, they were out with a cutback - this time Moises Cassado pulled the ball to the edge of the box, where Mwepu went ahead untracked and controlled a beautiful volley into the bottom corner.
Anger erupted inside Emirates as fans vented their anger over the lame performance before their very eyes.
Perhaps even more frustrating was Arsenal when they woke up from their slumber.
It was too little, too late - even with six minutes of extra time - but in that period of frenzied pressure he hit the bar twice, scoring and hitting Robert Sánchez more than at any time in the match. Forced to take action.
Martin Odegaard's free kick hit the bar at the time of death, and Eddie Neketia did the same with a rebound.
With the ball still in play and Arsenal keeping up the pressure, Odegaard's 30-yard deflected effort overtook Sanchez.
Emirates believed that the withdrawal was on.
Neketia forcefully made a flying save - then Gabriel came closer.
Brighton were against the ropes - but an equalizer did not come.
Even saving a point could have made all the difference in terms of the narrative surrounding Arsenal at the moment.
Instead defeat feels like this story is set for a sad ending.