Former Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City star Gary Lineker perfectly summed up the title race with a ‘squeaky bum’ reference.
Manchester City were held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace on Monday night.
The stalemate means that Liverpool can close the gap between themselves and the league leaders to just a point if they are able to beat Arsenal on Wednesday night.
For neutrals, the draw at Selhurst Park was the perfect outcome as it makes for a fascinating final nine games of the season.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have been playing catch-up to City for the majority of the campaign so far and if they are able to leapfrog last season’s winners then it would be a historic title victory by all accounts.
Tweeting after the draw, Lineker wrote to his 8.3million followers: “Getting tighter at the top. Bums will be squeaking.”
City missed numerous chances to break the deadlock against Palace and will be disappointed not to come away with all three points, though credit must go to the London outfit for how well they defended for extender periods of the match.
Aymeric Laporte missed two brilliant changes, including an open goal from close range, Bernardo Silva skewed his effort wide from inside the five-yard box and City rattled the woodwork on two occasions as well.
Vicente Guaita was also forced to make some smart saves, notably from Riyad Mahrez in the second half.
Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville also weighed in on the title race, explaining why he feels that Liverpool could hold the upper hand now because of how they aren’t short of out and out goalscorers.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, the pundit explained: “You’re talking about fine margins when you’re talking about these two great sides that are going for the Premier League title and have been for a couple of years now. You’re not talking about massive differences.
“There’s nothing wrong with Pep Guardiola’s team but the one thing I would say is if Liverpool play that game tonight, they win that game because they’ve got better strikers they’ve got better forwards. They’ve got more ruthless finishers they have five of them there that I’d put my money on whereas City, they are almost like midfield players or wide players playing in those positions.
“As brilliant as they are and as great as they are, the difference come the end of the season could come down to the fact that Liverpool do have more strikers that are more clinical and more suited to scoring goals.”
In what could be a title-deciding match, City host Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on April 10.
Assuming that the Reds beat Arsenal and close the gap to just a point and both sides are victorious in their next fixtures, whoever wins the match on that Sunday will only need to not drop six points in the final six matches of the season.
It remains to be seen whether the title is wrapped up by the final game of the season or if football fans up and down the country will enjoy another historic day in Premier League history on May 22.
