Only two matchdays remains on the calendar and we’re set for the best finish to a Premier League season for quite some time.
City and Liverpool each held their nerve in Week 36 and that means that the former still holds a single-point lead. In Week 37, Liverpool travel to Newcastle and City host Leicester. The tension is so thick that you could cut it with a knife.
Not much for either club to gain out of this and it’s one of the several formalities that is set to be played in the penultimate week of the Premier League. As expected, the Toffees followed up their thrashing of United with a fair effort on the road to Crystal Palace and all of their recent form suggests that they should be returning to winning form when they get back to Goodison Park. No complaints from me on that front, but I can’t have the $1.58 that’s on offer for them to do it.
Should have been one of the surest things of the week, but it’s anyone’s guess after Spurs’ shocking performance against West Ham last week. Fancy knocking City out of the Champions League then spilling your lollies at home to the Hammers. It’s the kind of thing nightmares are made of – probably for the Tottenham fans, but I’m focused firmly on all of the multis that the result surely claimed. A minute’s silence for them. It hasn’t been a particularly lucrative run of form for Bournemouth and surely, that was just a blip on the run home for Spurs.
A well-placed market from our bookies given the spray I’ve just thrown at Spurs, but can we trust West Ham to make it two in a row? Several times this season they’ve traded places with Newcastle as the hardest team to trust from a betting perspective and their horrid run of form leading into the win at Tottenham only made the result tougher to swallow. They face a Southampton side that have looked decent in patches without recorded a lot of wins. Not a fan of this one, but the draw looms as a potentially lucrative play.
Morale in the Fulham stands must be lower than it was when the Michael Jackson statue was erected outside Craven Cottage, because finally their side has hit a patch of form – all in time to be demoted. Wins over Everton, Bournemouth and Cardiff have seen Fulham all but double their seasonal points tally, but they are still incapable of surviving. They face a Wolves side who have clearly been the best of the rest, outside of the faints and who are gunning for three in a row.
Cardiff were unable to take advantage of Brighton’s inability to save themselves again and they are now a draw away from being confirmed as the final club relegated. They gave themselves a glimmer of hope when they beat the Seagulls three back, but surely the wheels are off for good now they have lost to Fulham and a rebuild in the second tier would probably do them a world of good. Palace have been playing pretty well and this looks another winnable one for them.
Two matches remaining and two opportunities for Liverpool to take the pressure away from City and lose the Premier League on their own accord. It would be quite a story for Rafa Benitez’s men to drive the nail into Liverpool’s coffin and regardless of the glimpses of the few moments of brilliance they’ve shown between bulk rubbish this season, this is surely a bridge too far for them. Liverpool won’t be leaving anything to chance and should be winning.
If Tottenham are doing their best to fall out of third place, then Chelsea are doing their best to prop them back up. Sure, a loss to Liverpool and a draw with United are credible but they failed to take all the points from Burnley and are winless in their last four Premier League fixtures – what a time to fall out of favour when Champions League berths are on the line. They’ve been saved by Arsenal being even worse and they are offered an opportunity to all but put it to bed when they host the Hornets on Sunday night. SURELY.
Thank you, next.
Arsenal lack stones and for a club sitting fifth, credibility. I genuinely did not think they’d complete the horrid hat-trick but here we are on the other side of a 3-0 loss to Leicester that was compounded further by a red card. Brighton were unlucky not to take anything from Spurs a fortnight ago and took a small, but still potentially vital step forward when they drew with Newcastle on Sunday. The scenes if they delivered Arsenal a fourth-consecutive loss, particularly with what it would mean to their own campaign and survival. The Gunners simply do not deserve their resounding favouritism, but probably win. I’m happy just to watch this one.
There is no doubt that City has had the tougher run to the line than what Liverpool has been dealt and they do face another somewhat nervous prospect in the form of Leicester City on Tuesday morning. City are clearly going to start this as resounding favourites and so they should, but the Foxes did absolutely destroy Arsenal on Monday morning and will be quietly confident of taking it to City and potentially ruining their Premier League title defence. I don’t think that City will be in any mood to sit back.