A dejected Mikel Arteta was left "extremely sad" as Arsenal's dreams of Premier League glory officially came to an end with a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Sitting four points behind the reigning champions having played a game more and a vastly inferior goal difference, Arsenal realistically needed to win to keep the race for the title alive, at least until City took to the field against Chelsea on Sunday.
However, with Nottingham Forest battling for their Premier League safety and buoyed by results earlier in the day, Steve Cooper's men outfought and outclassed Arsenal in nearly every department.
Despite seeing very little of the ball, the hosts capitalised on an error from Martin Odegaard to draw first blood through Taiwo Awoniyi in the 19th minute, as the striker picked out the bottom corner after being slipped through by Morgan Gibbs-White.
An experimental Arsenal team - which featured Thomas Partey at right-back as Kieran Tierney started on the bench - unsurprisingly dominated possession, but Arteta's men were noticeably toothless in the final third, and Forest held on for the win which secured their survival.
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A party atmosphere soon took over at the City Ground and over at the Etihad, as Manchester City celebrated winning their third Premier League title in a row, and Arsenal were left to rue a period of capitulation at the worst possible time.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after the game, Arteta admitted that to come up short after spending 248 days at the top was "very painful", but he was not convinced that his side would have scored if they had been trying for three hours on the day.
"First of all congratulations to Manchester City for winning the championship but it is a sad day for us. Now we have to face the reality, today we gave a goal away and we were not good enough to break them down. We could play for three hours and we would not have done it," Arteta said.
"It is my responsibility and I take it. When it is beautiful great, when it isn't, that is sport. The number of goals we have given to the opponents recently has cost us but we can't put the guilt on someone.
"We should have been better as a team and in the last few weeks we have fallen short. This is football. It is a very sad day, we have been working for 11 months with that aim and have been on top for so many days.
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"We have competed but we didn't have enough. Now we must heal in the next few days. It is very painful, I'm extremely sad. I have to find a way to lift the players and we have a difficult week ahead of us.
"This is sport. Sometimes there is a defeat, sometimes a relationship that is broken, there is a lot of factors. We have to live with that and today is difficult, we have to face the difficulty and find a way to learn from it and be better.
"We have learned huge lessons. We have transformed a lot at this club, we have made huge steps but the icing on the cake is to win a championship and we fell short."
While Arsenal have fallen short in the title race, a second-placed finish represents their best ranking since the 2015-16 season, and Champions League football will return to the red half of North London for the first time in seven years next term.
The Gunners round off the campaign at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium next Sunday afternoon.
Ben Knapton
