Three draws, six points dropped and the fight for the English Premier League title is back. Arsenal drops points and their chances of winning the English title are dwindling as Manchester City are two games short and have five points to recover, a relatively easy task for a Manchester City in excellent form, recently confirmed by their qualification to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup final.
While Arsenal have forgotten how to win, throwing out the lead they had, Manchester City have reached their 11th win in their last 12 games in all competitions. What’s more, Pep Guardiola’s side looks in fine form at the end of the season. ManCity could largely solve the title problem in England on Wednesday night when they take on Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium in a 33rd round Premier League match, a midweek fixture. With no unavailability, Erling Haaland in the best form of his existence, the best attack and the second best defence in the Premier League, Pep Guardiola is very close to achieving his dream, the “treble”: winning the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and the FA Cup, a dream he has been longing for more than a decade. ManCity will start Wednesday’s match with the first chance against Arsenal, a win putting them in pole position in the fight for the title, a battle that at one point seemed lost. Arsenal looks like a tired team, with the match at the Etihad the biggest test for the Gunners in the last 20 years!
Newcastle United, the big revelation of the current Premier League season, are edging ever closer to a place in the English topflight and a place in the next edition of the UEFA Champions League. The team coached by Eddie Howe – Jason Tindall tandem hit the ground running this weekend against a Tottenham side in a slump: 6-1. The Lilywhites are unrecognizable after the departure of coach Antonio Conte and risk of getting nothing at the end of the season. Newcastle’s next two games are against Everton at Goodison Park, followed by a match against a Southampton team with nothing left to lose. For Spurs the future brings two more tough games: against ManUnited and FC Liverpool.
Liverpool has made it two wins in a row and are still hoping they can salvage one of their worst seasons in years with a top four finish. In four of the last seven remaining rounds of the season, Liverpool will play four games at Anfield, but it’s not going to be easy. Jürgen Klopp’s side still has home games against Tottenham, Fulham, Brentford and Aston Villa, and away games against West Ham, Leicester and Southampton, all of which look easy at first glance. But Liverpool has alternated between magnificent and catastrophic matches this season, losing three times to teams who were bottom of the Premier League table at the time of the match. Even in the last round Liverpool won quite fortunately, 3-2, against an attack-oriented Nottingham Forest side.
Aston Villa is another team in excellent form. In the middle of this week ”the lions” start with the first chance in the home match against Fulham, but at the weekend they will have a more difficult game, at Old Trafford, against Man United.
The fight to avoid relegation remains open, with last-placed Southampton also having some chances of salvation. The Saints’ last match, 3-3 against Arsenal in London, showed that Rubén Sellés’ team’s place is in the Premier League and not in the Championship. This round Southampton will play at home against Bournemouth, but at the weekend they will travel to St James Park for an almost impossible mission against Newcastle.
Chelsea continues the poor run despite dropping Graham Potter and bringing back Frank Lampard – four consecutive defeats, two in the league and two in the Champions League. On Wednesday Chelsea will meet the revelation Brentford and next Wednesday they will play away against Arsenal, a task that is already looking impossible.
