City has chance to put squeeze on Arsenal

LONDON (Reuters) – After being forced to play catch-up for the last month, Manchester City has the chance to exert some added pressure on Arsenal in the Premier League title race when it kicks off the weekend’s action at Fulham on Saturday.

City’s last three Premier League wins against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion all came after Arsenal had already gathered three points to temporarily open up a four-point lead over Pep Guardiola’s side in the table.

This weekend, however, City goes first and victory at Craven Cottage on Saturday lunchtime would see it move two points clear of Arsenal with two games left.

Arsenal would then have to beat a woefully out-of-form Manchester United on Sunday to regain top spot.

The last time Arsenal kicked off after City it did not work out too well as it lost 2-0 at home to Aston Villa, the day after City thrashed Luton Town 5-1 to go top.

Since then Arsenal has regained the lead but only because City were in FA Cup semifinal action and has played one game less than the Gunners heading into the penultimate weekend.

Should both City and Arsenal win at the weekend, the focus will switch to City’s game in hand at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday when victory for Guardiola’s side would put an unprecedented fourth successive title in their grasp.

Arsenal travels to an injury-hit Manchester United side whose season hit yet another low on Monday when it was thrashed 4-0 at Crystal Palace. That result left eighth-place United’s hopes of qualifying for Europe via the league hanging by a thread and manager Erik ten Hag’s future under an even darker cloud.

While the focus is very much on the fight for the title, the battle to avoid relegation could be resolved this weekend.

Burnley will join Sheffield United through the relegation trapdoor unless it wins at Tottenham Hotspur while Luton Town will almost certainly go down if it loses at West Ham United in what will be the last home match for David Moyes.

Even if Luton wins, 17th-place Nottingham Forest could almost certainly send it down if it defeats Chelsea in Saturday’s late kickoff.