While they try to rekindle their chances of winning the Premier League, Arsenal and Liverpool are now dealing with their own issues. However, the physical pain, fatigue, and low morale that managers Jürgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta have to deal with are also posing a threat to Manchester City and Pep Guardiola.
This weekend represents Arsenal’s and Liverpool’s last opportunity to turn the tables on City and take advantage of their moment of weakness if they want the Premier League trophy to end the season with red ribbons instead of blue. Arsenal and Liverpool may lead City by four points when they play Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday when they resume Premier League play. Should that prove to be the case, the magnitude of the challenge confronting the current champions should not be undervalued.
There are doubts about City’s capacity to recover and win a fourth straight title after seeing Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne hobble out of City’s Champions League quarterfinal loss against Real Madrid on Wednesday. Guardiola and his players also appeared tired and defeated. Who knows how big of a blow losing their treble aspirations will be for City?
destroyed by a loss in a penalty shootout? Though they technically drew with Madrid for more than 120 minutes, try telling Guardiola and his players they didn’t lose the match. With that being said, City has now lost the sense of invincibility that they had since losing 1-0 to Aston Villa in December. They have now gone 27 games without losing.
Teams that truly find their rhythm around the final line define certain championship races. They treat ailments, exhaustion, and adversary “mind games” as if they don’t exist. Leicester City’s incredible victory in 2016 and City’s three-year winning streak during the previous season are prime examples of teams ignoring all outside distractions in order to win the championship. However, occasionally the elite teams falter, putting their physical and mental fortitude to the test. When Sergio Agüero’s 93rd-minute winner occurred in 2012
In the season’s last match, City’s victory over Queen’s Park Rangers was clinched. During the final stretch, both they and their closest rivals, Manchester United, gained and lost sizable leads (United was eight points ahead with six games remaining).
What transpires this weekend will determine the championship race for this season. With Liverpool visiting Fulham on Sunday and Arsenal away to Wolves on Saturday night, championship challengers City will have a chance to knock Guardiola’s team out of first place in their FA Cup semifinal matchup against Chelsea on Saturday (stream LIVE at 12:15 p.m. ET on ESPN+). But even if the Real loss will have damaged City’s confidence, Arsenal and Liverpool also need to get back up off the ground.
Arsenal, who has lost their last two games without scoring—against Aston Villa in the league and Bayern Munich in the Champions League—will take on Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Liverpool’s title hopes have been hurt by a run of one point from their last two Premier League games. The 3-0 Europa League loss to Atalanta at home in between those forfeited points against Crystal Palace and United also caused a lack of confidence at Anfield. Though both sides now trail City by two points atop the Premier League, things may change rapidly, so winning this weekend is all that Arsenal and Liverpool need to do to maintain their aspirations.
If Arsenal wants to win the title, they must break their recent pattern of losing badly in the last few weeks of a season. The Gunners won five and lost five of their final ten league games in 2021–22, compared to just four wins in their final ten games the previous season. Though winning all six of their remaining games would be realistically necessary this time, a four-point lead (and a much healthier goal differential over City) would put Arteta’s team squarely back in the running for the championship if they can win all three points at Molineux and then defeat Chelsea at the Emirates on Tuesday.
Liverpool usually finishes strong in the league, so Klopp’s team is not expected to give up points like they have recently. They nearly finished in the top four last season with seven wins and three draws from their final ten games; however, in the final stretch of 2021–2022, they finished just one point behind eventual champions City with eight wins and two draws.
Following Thursday’s Europa League elimination despite winning the second leg against Atalanta 1-0 in Italy, Liverpool’s title hopes hinge on their trip to Fulham on Sunday. Liverpool has drew their last two league visits to Craven Cottage, despite the fact that they haven’t lost there since December 2011. This is a result they can’t afford to lose this Sunday. However, a victory against Fulham combined with another triumph in, By the time they return to league action at Brighton, they will have gained four points ahead of City, who will have played two fewer games than Liverpool and Arsenal after their Merseyside derby against Everton on Wednesday.
Arsenal and Liverpool are surrounded by many ifs and buts, but one thing is certain: they both need to win this weekend in order to have a genuine chance of winning the championship. However, even with two games remaining, City would still have a task to overcome a four-point disadvantage if one or both of them can perform admirably this weekend and support it with another victory in the middle of the week. Although past performance indicates that Guardiola and his team can handle that task, the race for the title is still ongoing.
Real Madrid has demonstrated that it is possible to defeat City, but Arsenal and Liverpool need to put in extra effort to do the same in the Premier League.