Simply put, if Pep Guardiola's side won all of their games from now until the end of the 2025/26 campaign, they would be Premier League champions - again.
If Arsenal wanted to be the team holding the famous trophy aloft for the first time since the Invincibles season of 2003/04, then they needed the Toffees, one of Mikel Arteta's former clubs, to do them a massive favour.
David Moyes' side had the carrot of still being able to qualify for European football for next season ahead of the fixture, so there was very much something to play for, rather than being an end-of-season damp squib as far as Everton were concerned.
It was likely to be a tall order for the hosts, however, as City had got the better of them of late, being unbeaten in the last 17 league meetings, and also unbeaten in their last six away matches in 25/26 against any opposition.
A win for Everton would be their first against the Cityzens in the league since January 2017, during which time they've scored just nine times but conceded 40 goals, including two from Erling Haaland in the fixture earlier this season.
With 24 goals prior to Monday's fixture, the Norwegian international is once again on course to become the Golden Boot winner in this season's Premier League.
The match represented a significant milestone for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Bernardo Silva, with the former making his 100th appearance in the EPL and the latter his 300th.
In the early stages of the game, you could've been forgiven for thinking that City were the home team, given they'd had an astonishing 87% of the ball in the opening 15 minutes.
Before Dewsbury-Hall had attempted Everton's first effort of note, the hosts had already dealt with two efforts each from Nico O'Reilly and Rayan Cherki, as well as Haaland's 117th shot of the season, more than any player in the league.
Sensational strike from Doku
Importantly, despite the evident pressure, City still hadn't made anything of their dominance, with Jordan Pickford having to make just a single save.
Jeremy Doku was certainly making his presence felt, creating three chances in the first half alone, with Cherki's three attempts the most from a player on either side in the first 40 minutes of the game.
As half-time approached, the pair combined for Doku to arrow a sensational left-footed curler into the top corner to silence the home fans.
Given that City hadn't lost any of their last 25 matches when taking the lead, the onus was on Everton to up the tempo and take the game to the visitors.
Unfortunately, the hosts offered nothing in terms of an attacking threat in those first 45 minutes, with Beto attempting just two passes before the break.
Tim Iroegbunam's four tackles (six before he was subbed off) were the most from an Everton perspective, whilst James Garner's winning of all four of his tackles suggested Moyes' side were right up against it.
A gift from Guehi
The second half began with the Toffees being a little more adventurous, but how Iliman Ndiaye could only find Gianluigi Donnarumma's gloves with the goal at his mercy and only the City keeper to beat is anyone's guess.
Thierno Barry had come on for Beto, and just four minutes later, an absolute gift from Marc Guehi allowed Barry to steer the ball home for the equaliser.
Five after that, Jake O'Brien rose highest from an Everton corner to power home their second with his only touch in the City box all night.
Despite the vast majority of City players having a pass completion success of over 90%, they were undone by a simple ball into the area.
The visitors certainly couldn't be accused of not working hard, as six of their players hit double figures for one-on-one duels contested, with Doku winning 14 of his 19.
Some glorious interplay from City was a joy to watch, but the plain fact was that they'd not had an attempt at goal since the blocked efforts from Silva and O'Reilly within the space of four seconds at the very start of the second half.
17 minutes of mayhem
With 10 minutes to play, it appeared that Everton had wrapped up the points when Mateo Kovacic's attempt to bring down Merlin Rohl failed, and his cross found Barry to score the hosts' third goal, and his eighth of the campaign.
That prompted a walkout from City fans, but within the space of 10 seconds from the kick-off, they came running back in as Haaland chipped home a second, and a lifeline for the visitors.
A third in three games for the striker represented his longest scoring spree since the six-game run between August and October.
The goal spurred City on, and in the 97th minute, Doku repeated his earlier trick, only this time he bent his shot past a despairing Pickford with his right foot.
It was just a fourth shot on target out of 21 taken over the course of the game, and whilst it saved face, it still handed the title advantage to Arsenal, the pendulum having swung to the extent that now it's the Gunners who only need to win their games against West Ham, Burnley and Crystal Palace to land the title.
Individual errors cost City
When Guardiola looks back on this game as the one which potentially lost City the title, he will see that his side still had over 75% collective possession across the 90 minutes, played more than three times as many passes as Everton (629 compared to 201), and had a collective pass completion of 90.8% in the opposition half (compared to just 52.9% from the hosts).
To that end, the only conclusion that the Catalan can possibly draw from a draw that will feel like a defeat is that, in some of the game's big moments, his players made individual errors that were incredibly costly.
Moyes is unlikely to be too happy either, though his side are still only three points from qualifying for the Conference League, a competition the Scot famously won back in 2023 with West Ham.
