OLIVER HOLT: That's not this Arsenal team. We should admire, not insult them

There is a great stigma attached to the idea of 'choking' in sport.

It is used as an insult, an accusation of weakness that implies lack of character and absence of moral fibre.

Academic papers, a whole raft of them, have been written about it. Maybe one day, they will write one about Arsenal and the end to the 2023-24 season.

But have Arsenal's credentials in this delicate matter really been fully established yet? I don't think so.

I was at The Emirates last Tuesday when they played poorly against a Bayern Munich team that has had a desperately disappointing season in the Bundesliga and drew 2-2 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

It felt as if Arsenal were intimidated by Bayern's European pedigree and under-performed. Bayern, in contrast, played above themselves.

When Arsenal lost at home to a fine Aston Villa side on Sunday and found themselves two points behind Manchester City in the title race, they were immediately accused of losing their nerve.

In their 2013 paper, 'Definition of choking in sport: Re-conceptualization and debate', published in the International Journal of Sport Psychology, Christopher Mesagno and Denise Hill defined choking as 'an acute and considerable decrease in skill execution and performance when self-expected standards are normally achievable, which is the result of increased anxiety under perceived pressure'.

So even though Arsenal didn't play well against either Bayern or Villa, it feels both harsh and lazy to talk about them choking. For a start, they're not out of anything yet.

The odds will be against them in the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night but they are good enough to get a result there if they play to their potential.

And did they really choke against Villa? I don't