The title race continues to throw twists and turns in every direction as the Premier League season rapidly approaches the end point. Arsenal lead the way, sitting five points clear of Manchester City, but it appears to be the latter that have the advantage after recent results.
Pep Guardiola's side have two games in hand over the Gunners, while the north London outfit have stumbled to three consecutive draws. The latest came in a 3-3 stalemate with bottom of the league Southampton, which saw plenty of drama thrown into the mix in an emotional game.
Next up for the north London side is a trip to the Etihad Stadium to face their biggest challengers to the crown, but it will be a tough clash on recent form. "Well hopefully it gives more belief because at the end of the day when you are able to do what they’ve done in a difficult context against the odds you have to believe in what you can do," Mikel Arteta said ahead of the potential title decider. "Today it’s tough to think about what happens because today we are focusing on what just happened and they’ve been through."
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Should the Gunners fail to win in Manchester on Wednesday, it means that things will be out of their hands and they will be relying on favours elsewhere. That's not to say they should give up though, as former player Paul Merson believes there's still a chance and some difficult games to come.
He said on Sky Sports: "I’m still quite confident, I think the fixtures will catch up with Man City. The one game you don’t want to play in-between Real Madrid is Everton away.
"Sean Dyche is going to make it very difficult. This is why everyone loves the Premier League. Top [Arsenal] has just played bottom [Southampton] and they’ve had to score two goals in the last minute.
"Someone’s only got to run through next week, or two weeks time, and Ederson comes out to give away a penalty or gets a red card. It changes that quickly. Man City beat Arsenal 3-1 away, a few days later they went to Nottingham Forest and drew 1-1.
"They could have won 100-1! That’s how quick it changes, and it was back in Arsenal’s hands. If I was Arsenal, I wouldn’t lose faith yet. Honestly, I wouldn't."
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