It was there from early on: a kind of dread that stalks the Emirates now, one that says that all the accommodations made for this Mikel Arteta team – all the compromises accepted in return for that one precious thing – might be in vain.

Are Arsenal about to blow the Premier League title? The possibility hardened over the course of a game that was tough going for those home fans who have rationalised what has gone before on the basis of what they hope is to come. Bournemouth took Arsenal apart at the crucial stages.

Alex Scott, the game’s best player, scored the winning goal. This was the cruel game of football for once delivering rational outcomes – and no one among the home fans could find respite in referee conspiracy or bad luck.

In one technical area, Arteta’s childhood team-mate from San Sebastián, Andoni Iraola, a cheerful, easy-going Basque, was giving his old acquaintance a tactical masterclass. Then there was Arteta, a brooding and explosive Basque, committed to his Arsenal creed, watching his players being picked off in possession. Bournemouth pressed fearlessly. Scott and Ryan Christie ran the show. Arteta did not – could not – change the approach and so the drama played out.

Afterwards the Arsenal manager chewed over the details, talking darkly about “some very basic things that we did extremely badly”, but declined to elaborate. He refused to feel sorry for himself but did, nonetheless, mention some of the key men who are still injured. On the other hand, Iraola, shrugged and pointed out that anyone who watched his team knew that they embraced the press, accepted the risk, and chased the reward. Today their ship finally came in – there have been seven draws in the 12 straight Premier League games Bournemouth have now gone undefeated.

This was a fabulous game – full of tension and unexpected twists. One wonders if Sporting CP, due at the Emirates on Wednesday for the resumption of their Champions League quarter-final tie, will take note. Perhaps they had always intended to approach the second leg differently, but the combination of a home crowd determined to urge the team forward, and then Arteta’s insistence on the short passing game, presents opportunities.

The win in Lisbon in the 91st minute is the only Arsenal triumph in the past four games in four different competitions. Three defeats going back to the Carabao Cup final on March 22 – all of them different, all of them pregnant with meaning – and now the closing weeks of the season presents an Arsenal psychodrama like none other.

It is gripping stuff, no less absorbing than the relegation calamity unfolding over at Tottenham Hotspur. Another injury to Riccardo Calafiori meant only the second league start of the season for Myles Lewis-Skelly – and he was among the better performers for Arteta. But others in his side failed notably to rise to the occasion.

Arteta felt that too and went early with his changes. After 53 minutes, and with the score level, he abandoned his faith in Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli – and sent on three very good alternatives. But he would not abandon the system – and it was the system which was giving Bournemouth their opportunities.

“A game of cat and mouse” was Iraola’s elegant grip of the idiom to describe the pressing game of the likes of Eli Junior Kroupi, Evanilson and Brazilian Rayan. Could Arteta have changed it? To go long would have meant relying on Viktor Gyökeres as the target-man fulcrum, and the Arsenal manager seems unprepared to do that. The £64m striker dispatched a first-half penalty but otherwise nothing has changed. He can do certain things, but conjuring a match-winning, title-defining goal from nowhere is not one of them.

In the meantime, Bournemouth’s expertly recruited squad – from which the club have sold five key players since their last league fixture at the Emirates – clicked into gear. Scott dispatched a superb ball through the Arsenal back line for the first. Adrien Truffert’s cross deflected off William Saliba to Kroupi at the back post. Christie’s handball after 34 minutes was the chance Arsenal had to grasp.

But they never felt in control, especially in midfield, where Martín Zubimendi and even Declan Rice looks jaded. Iraola’s team just kept going and it was Christie’s replacement David Brooks, who created the winner. His ball was nudged on by Evanilson and Scott, who had been moved forward in the moments before, glided on to the pass, glanced at David Raya and speared a shot past him.

This is the defining Arsenal moment now after 6½ years of Arteta. He certainly talked afterwards with some defiance – more insisting that his team must “enjoy the opportunity”. No one at Arsenal can be enjoying this. They built a team and a strategy to grind out this title and now, eventually, it is starting to look vulnerable. 

Manchester City have a clear week to prepare for Sunday’s game at the Etihad. Lose then, and the two games in hand will give City scope to equalise the points tally of Arsenal. It could be a thrilling end to the season. But winning is all there is left for Arsenal – they have run out of road when it comes to all the other consolations of second place. 

There can be no delighting in a team of free spirit and attacking verve. That has all been sacrificed for the first Premier League title in 22 years and yet still the prize remains just out of reach. “Today we have to suffer,” Arteta said. “It’s painful. It’s a terrible feeling. Tomorrow is a different day.” He is right, of course, and after all, it is only football. Although you would be hard pressed to make that argument to those heading grimly to the exits in the Emirates on this afternoon.

Mikel Arteta said Arsenal had been “punched in the face” as their title ambitions were severely dented by a shock home defeat by Bournemouth.

Arsenal remain nine points clear of Manchester City but appear increasingly vulnerable in the race against Pep Guardiola’s side, who have two games in hand and host Arsenal next weekend.

Arsenal produced arguably their worst performance of the season at the Emirates Stadium, where many home supporters booed at the final whistle.

“Extremely disappointing,” Arteta said. “It’s a big punch in the face. That’s what I said to the boys. It has to hurt. They have to take it on the chin. You stand up and go for the fight, or you are out.

“There are no grey areas: we are in, or we are out. We need to be very, very strong and determined to approach it in a different way than we have done today, especially when the game wasn’t going our way. Today there were some basic things that we did extremely badly.

“There are no excuses. It’s about how we’re going to stand up, first of all, individually. And then as a team to change that immediately on Wednesday [against Sporting CP in the Champions League].

“We have to embrace it and especially enjoy the opportunity. That’s one of the things that I haven’t seen from the team today, that level of enjoyment in certain moments. That’s a fight that we have to have, to really change the course of the game when it gets difficult.”

Arsenal’s cause was not helped by the absence through injury of key players Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori.

“First of all, we need everybody fit and available,” Arteta said. “The ones that are not involved, the ones that are not with us, that are really big and important players, we need them immediately with us.

“And then the other ones, they need to stand up. Me, the first one, and embrace this challenge and go for it. So today we have to suffer. It’s painful. It’s a terrible feeling. Tomorrow is a different day. And if somebody would have said to me in August, we are in this position right now in April, I’m sure we would all take it.”

Andoni Iraola, whose players produced such an impressive showing, said: “We showed great personality to play in a big game and a big stadium. We were quite brave. A complete performance.”