MANCHESTER, England — Quite when Arsenal knew it was all over is difficult to pinpoint. Hope might still have lingered after Manchester City’s first goal, roughly 370 seconds into a game that had been billed as the great showdown of the Premier League season. Some small sliver of optimism might even have survived the second, delivered on a satellite delay just before half-time.
The third, though, would have extinguished it, pulled it from its roots, razed any sign of its existence, salted the Earth so that it might never grow again.
Rob Holding stood with his hands on his hips, staring off into the middle distance.