If you follow the voices and mood in England after Manchester City’s 4-1 humiliation against Arsenal FC, the Premier League title fight is over. There really isn’t much that speaks for the Gunners anymore.
At least the table at the moment. Going into the 34th matchday, Mikel Arteta’s team leads with 75 points ahead of City with 73. The headline in the “Daily Mirror” is understandable, however, because Pep Guardiola and his protégés still have two catch-up games up their sleeve.
Note: The sports show shows excerpts of the match between Fulham FC and Manchester City on Sunday (04/30/2023, 7:15 p.m.).
arsenals champion hopes – all over?
“It’s over” the newspaper unceremoniously stamped Arsenal’s championship hopes. The “Sun” indulged in the play on words “It’s Hale Over” in reference to the sensational season of City goal machine Erling Haaland with his 33 Premier League goals.
Even Guardiola, the perennial warner and admonisher, points to the seven remaining games and the current second place, but then has to admit: “We have fate in our hands. Now that we’re getting to the end of the season, the most important thing is that it’s up to us.”
Difficult remaining program for Arsenal
It didn’t look like that for a very long time this season. Arsenal meanwhile had an eight-point lead with one more game to play. But as is surprisingly often the case, Manchester City is brutally dominant, aggressive and focused in the last third of the season in the Premier League.
The rest of the program also speaks quite clearly for City. Except for the game against Brighton & Hove on May 24, there are no opponents from the top eight on the plan, a disadvantage may be two away games at the end. After the game on Tuesday (May 2nd, 2023) against Chelsea, Arsenal have a competitor who will probably also be able to play in the Champions League next season: Newcastle United, for example, recently humiliated Tottenham Hotspurs 6-1.
| Arsenal FC | Manchester City |
|---|---|
| H Chelsea FC (2.5.) | A Fulham FC (30.4.) |
| A Newcastle United (6.5.) | H West Ham (3.5.) |
| H Brighton & Hove (14.5.) | H Leeds United (6.5.) |
| A Nottingham Forest (20.5.) | A Everton (14.5) |
| H Wolverhampton (28.05.) | H Chelsea FC (21.5.) |
| A Brighton & Hove (24.5.) | |
| A Brentford FC (28.5.) |
Concentration on the championship
But this time the final sprint may also be a question of strength. In Wednesday’s head-to-head match with Arsenal, the City players’ fitness looked frightening, but for Kevin De Bruyne in particular, everything looked so easy as if he had just played a few games in his bones. For the Gunners, on the other hand, Martin Ödegaard, who had stood out for a long time, seemed almost sluggish, and there was little to be seen of Granit Xhaka, not to mention Gabriel Jesus in the center of the attack.
But for the Citizens there are not only the seven league games, but at least three, if not four, other highlights. like last year, defending champions Real Madrid are waiting in the semi-finals of the Champions League. And with it the chance of a treble: The FA Cup final is against city rivals Manchester United, but not until June 3rd, when the Premier League is over.
Man City: De Bruyne thinks game by game
After his world-class performance against Arsenal, however, Kevin De Bruyne didn’t appear as if he and his colleagues were looking too far into the future and neglecting their everyday homework in the league: “We know we still have seven league games ahead of us and then the Champions League match against Real Madrid. But even if it sounds like a cliché, we always only think about the next game, otherwise you won’t get through this stressful program at all.”
Kevin de Bruyne (left) celebrates his goal to make it 1-0
De Bruyne and his teammates have proven four times in the past five years that it wasn’t just a cliché to squirm through annoying reporters’ questions or allow themselves to be under too much pressure from outside.