Manchester City are now strong favorites to be crowned Premier League champions after Arsenal and Liverpool lost on Sunday.
This season in the English Premier League, there has been an unusually tough championship battle between three teams. Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have been within a couple of points at the top of the league for a long time.
Before the weekend round, Arsenal led the league on goal difference ahead of Liverpool. Both had 71 points. City were a point away.
On Saturday, City routinely beat league bottom Luton 5-1. On Sunday, there was a big twist in the championship race when both Liverpool and Arsenal unexpectedly lost their home matches. Especially Liverpool’s loss to Crystal Palace 0–1 was surprising. Arsenal lost 0–2 to fourth-placed Aston Villa in the series.
The results changed the championship fight dramatically. The change was well described by a question sent by a reader on the BBC website:
– How have we moved from “the best championship fight ever” on Sunday at 2 p.m. to “everything is clear, the overwhelming Manchester City will inevitably win” on Sunday at 7 p.m.?
Although City’s championship cannot be considered inevitable, it still took a big hold of the championship trophy. Having won five of the previous six championships, City is used to winning important games at the end of the season.
City lead Arsenal and Liverpool by two points with six rounds remaining. If City win all their games they will be champions, but one slip up can still change the game. City face Wolverhampton and West Ham at home and Brighton, Nottingham, Fulham and Tottenham away
– My players like pressure. It doesn’t mean we’ll win the title, but I’m pretty sure we’ll fight for it until the end, City manager Pep Guardiola said after Saturday’s game.
Many experts are also leaning in the direction of City.
– It is very difficult to see City not winning. From the rest of the season, they put a lot of pressure on others. They are unyielding and if you are not the same, they will sweep you out of their way. Now they are in the driver’s seat and I don’t think they will fall, the former star player Emile Heskey said on the BBC.
– This was City’s weekend, but the top of the league is still very flat and I believe that new twists and turns are yet to come, said another former star on the other hand Alan Shearer.