The 2023/24 season is truly showing there is a race to be Premier League champions and that it’s not a one or two horse race with game week 27 seeing the three contenders in Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal keep pace with one another.
All three teams were in action on different days meaning when Liverpool won, it put pressure on Man City and when Man City won, it put pressure on Arsenal but no team cracked under the pressure as it still remains a 3-way battle to be crowned the 23/24 Premier League Champions.
Nottingham Forest 0 - 1 Liverpool
Liverpool left it late on Saturday afternoon at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest as Darwin Núñez got his head on to an Alexis Mac Allister cross in the 99th minute that seen the Reds walk away with all three points to stay at the head of the table. They dominated possession seeing 71% of the ball to Forest's 29% and seen 22 shots but with only two on target and of course, one of the two being that all important winner so it may have been last minute but they scored when it really mattered.
Manchester City 3 - 1 Manchester United
It was the Manchester derby as Manchester City went head-to-head with Manchester United on Sunday at the Etihad. United took an early lead through a brilliant distribution from André Onana to Bruno Fernandes that reached into the final third and Fernandes held up the ball well as he passed it off nicely to Marcus Rashford, who struck the ball from well outside the box that rattled the underside of the crossbar and in past Ederson as the score line didn’t change come half-time. The second half was turned on its head as Phil Foden got a brace, his first goal being a similar distance from goal as Rashford’s goal and the second was a nice one-two with Julián Álvarez to give City the lead, and of course, if there’s goals for City, Erling Haaland is usually the centre of that conversation and was, as he got an injury time goal to make sure of the three points as they stay just one point off Liverpool with a 3-1 derby win.
Sheffield United 0 - 6 Arsenal
The last game of game week 27 seen Arsenal travel to Bramell Lane to face a struggling Sheffield United. Whether you’re looking at the first 15, 25, 40 minutes or even full-time, it was a completely one-sided affair, the match stats show just that with the Gunners having 81% of the possession and 22 shots, with 10 on target. A game that was 5-0 by half-time and seen no point in risking Bukayo Saka by that point as he was substituted for Fabio Viera. Although Gabriel Martinelli did limp off and even though Arsenal's squad depth has came a long way, he would still be a massive miss if the injury is anything serious. Arsenal did take their foot off the gas in terms of the score line as the only added one more goal to their tally with a name not usually seen on a scoresheet, Ben White which took a score to 6-0 by full-time but by no means in terms of how they set out to play the rest of the game which perfectly sums up Arsenal this season but it also perfectly sums up the Blades' season too. Arsenal keep pace with Liverpool and Man City as they stay one point behind City and two behind Liverpool but have now scored 31 Premier League goals in the calendar year so far that shows their goal difference now sits at +45, which could be crucial with the race for the title being this tight as they currently have a better difference than both other front runners.
Game Week 28 and beyond
Looking at the remaining fixtures for the teams left, Arsenal and Liverpool fixture difficulty look to be around the same mark as they both still have to play Man City, which of course means Man City still have to play both teams in their remaining games. The big fixture of game week 28 is Liverpool v City at Anfield this Sunday and it could just be a title decider, but it may not go the way of either team as it could be a title decider for Arsenal who play Brentford at the Emirates, so as long as Arsenal walk away with the win, no matter if Liverpool or City walk with three points or the take one point a piece, that’s points dropped and would see Arsenal leapfrog one team if not both, with the previously mentioned superior goal difference the Gunners sit on, if the game does end in a draw Arsenal would go joint-top with Liverpool but ahead on goal difference and if the results do break this way it would see Liverpool stay sat on +39 goal difference and it would be a case of how much more Arsenal’s go up by and with the team scoring goals for fun, we could see this reach to +50 or higher.
All three teams are still in European competitions with Arsenal and Manchester City still in the UEFA Champions League and Liverpool still alive in the UEFA Europa League so no team is at an advantage or disadvantage there but domestically Liverpool won the Carabao Cup, beating Chelsea in 120 minutes but in the FA Cup, we are in the quarter-finals stage where Manchester City face Newcastle and Liverpool face rivals Manchester United. Arsenal were dumped out in the third round, the first round the Premier League teams come into play in the competition, courtesy of their title rivals Liverpool, but at this stage of the season, does this put them at the advantage with one less competition to worry about?
Remaining fixtures;
Liverpool - MCI (H), BHA (H), SHU (H), MUN (A), CRY (H), FUL (A), WHU (A), TOT (H), AVL (A) & WOL (H).
Manchester City - LIV (A), ARS (H), AVL (H), CRY (A), LUT (H), TOT (A), NFO (A), WOL (H), FUL (A) & WHU (H).
Arsenal - BRE (H), MCI (A), LUT (H), BHA (A), AVL (H), WOL (A), TOT (A), BOU (H), MUN (A) & EVE (H).
Will Manchester City be the first team in Premier League history to win the title four times in a row or can either Arsenal or Liverpool change those title ribbons from sky blue to red?
Comments