Neglect the Premier League at your own risk, as Arsenal has learned in the past four weeks.
It started with the 1-1 draw against Everton in Goodison Park on April 5, with Saturday's defeat by Bournemouth the latest chapter of the Gunners who watch these most ruthless competitions.
The winner of Evanilson was lucky when he bundled home from the back of a corner, the goal gave a variety for handball with the ball so close to his arm. It seemed that there was contact, but the repetitions considered it not decisive.
That didn't matter. The North London club was not worth three points, the result a reflection of the serious problems that Arsenal has to tackle this summer to realistically compete for the title next season.
They are now confronted with the prospect of being overtaken by both Manchester City and Newcastle for second place. If the North -London club completely capitulates in their last three league matches, against Liverpool, Newcastle and Southampton, there will be the very slender prospect of No Champions League football next season.
The latter is of course unlikely, but having lattered Liverpool in a large part of this campaign for pole position, to even struggle with the possibility of closing as fifth, is damned with their current dilemma – and certainly unthinkable earlier this year.
Even Mikel Arteta admitted afterwards that ending in the top five still has to be protected.
He said: “Well, we have a lot to do, yes, because we are not qualified mathematically, we have not yet had the right to finish second, so we still have a lot to do.”
It goes beyond this. For example, take a little bit of angry on Saturday on Saturday. Such frustration has not been seen with the Emirates since their 1-0 loss against West Ham on February 22, a defeat that at the time both arteta and fans hurt.
Their laser focus on the Champions League was at the expense of the performance of Arsenal in the competition, an almost acceptance that the Interior is not of real importance when the title seemed everything but that of Liverpool – the Reds were 12 points clear for the drawing of the Gunners with Everton.
It is a strategy that really hurts them, with a number of teams that are so happy to be eligible for the first competition in Europe.
The mood for the Dour may seem strange that the Gunners are going a semi-final of the Champions League in the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, but after being completed for two consecutive seasons, you can feel the thought of regression that starts to seep; Especially if they now not reach the Munich final on 31 May after they have paid so much attention to the competition.
Great football sides can give priority to both the competition and the Europe and success. Manchester City both won in the 2022-23 season, Liverpool reached the final of the Champions League and ended a point behind competition winners Man City in the 2021-22 campaign. It does not have to be a total focus on one or the other.
The line-up Arteta against Bournemouth was stronger than expected, with Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Martinelli all starting despite the crunch collision on Wednesday.
It showed the sharpness of the Spaniard to get a result and makes the defeat all the more worrying. From the beginning of April, Arsenal has fallen nine points over six league matches. That's not good enough.
Injury has been a huge burden for the Arsenal season. At the moment Gabriel, Kai Havertz, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Jesus, Jorginho and Takehiro Tomiyasu are all offside.
That would bother most parties, but the lack of depth in certain areas cannot be imposed, the most obvious in the middle.
Arsenal was already weak at the top before the seasonal injury by Gabriel Jesus that he picked up against Manchester United in January. The lack of attacking reinforcement last summer or in the January window came back to bite the club time and time again in this campaign.
The other two areas are left wing and attacking midfield, the last so short that on Friday Arteta has checked the 15-year-old Wonderkid Max Dowman as a potential option for that area next season.
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More urgent for the here and now, the Gunners have an annoying habit to admit set pieces. That cost them on Saturday, Bournemouth's two goals from Dean Huijsen and Evanlison come through this method to bring Arsenal's count to 12 set-piece goals that were admitted this season.
Only Wolves (21), Southampton (19), Manchester United (14) and Ipswich Town (13) have admitted more. They have gone from set-piece kings and score 20 so far, which is the most in the competition, to almost set-piece paupers in the space of months.
Reaching Munich would be a way to be a rescue season that started with so much promise, but now seems to be burning up. Otherwise, Arteta threatens to pick up pieces from a broken campaign.