Sunday’s meeting between Manchester City and Arsenal was billed as a potential title decider. While the race is not over mathematically, a huge hammerblow was dealt at the Etihad Stadium.
It was Pep Guardiola’s City who emerged victorious, snatching a nervy 2–1 win to move just three points behind Arsenal in the standings ahead of their midweek game against Burnley, before the Gunners next play.
It could be a straight shoot-out as to which team scores the most goals between now and the end of the season.
With a mammoth weekend now in the books, the Opta supercomputer has offered up its latest prediction for the Premier League title race.
Despite their crushing defeat on Sunday, Arsenal are still top of the predicted standings.
According to si.com, the supercomputer gives Arsenal a 72.97% chance of retaining top spot all the way to the end of the season, predicting City will end the season two points behind their fierce rivals and giving them just 27.03% chance of toppling Arsenal.
City are back in action on Wednesday against strugglers Burnley, when a victory could steer them to first place with just five games remaining.
Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea on Saturday has sealed a spot in the Champions League in every sense but mathematically.
While the Red Devils still could tumble out of the qualification places, they almost certainly aren’t going to, backed with a 98.64% chance of qualifying.
Both Aston Villa and Liverpool boosted their own chances of finishing in the top five with late victories on Sunday. Virgil van Dijk’s 100th-minute header against Everton opens up a seven-point cushion for the Reds, with Villa a further three points up thanks to their own stoppage-time triumph over Sunderland.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have lost all sense of form at the worst possible time, tumbling out of the Champions League spots and in danger of missing out on any European action at all next season, such are the fine margins in this area of the table.
Tied on 48 points with the Blues are Brentford and Bournemouth, and the Cherries are even backed to leapfrog Liam Rosenior’s side into sixth. That being said, Chelsea’s chances of qualifying (4.75%) are still higher than Bournemouth (2.55%).
