Premier League title challengers, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, suffered heartache from their European sojourns, with the Gunners narrowly losing to Bayern Munich after two legs, Manchester City crashing out via the lottery of penalty shootouts, while Liverpool were embarrassed on home turf by Atalanta.
Prior to the midweek Champions League games, Manchester City gained the advantage after decimating Luton Town, while Liverpool’s profligacy got the better of them in their shock loss at home to Crystal Palace. Arsenal, on the other hand, had a great first half and failed to take their chances against Aston Villa, but a terrible showing in the second half saw Unai Emery’s side deliver the sucker punch. A true Jekyll and Hyde performance.
Going into last weekend, Arsenal and Liverpool were locked in on 71 points, with Manchester City on 73, but the Cityzens had the distraction of the FA Cup to deal with, allowing Arsenal and Liverpool to gain the psychological advantage, if they fared better than their last encounters in the Premier League.
Arsenal took on an injury-ravaged Wolves on the late Saturday night fixture, and while it was not their best performance by a far mile, Mikel Arteta’s men went to the Midlands and got what they wanted – three precious points. There was slight rotation with Jakub Kiwior coming on for Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard getting the nod ahead of Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz shunted back to midfield ahead of Jorginho to accommodate Gabriel Jesus.
The Arsenal players looked very jaded and could do with more rotation, but with the risk involved, one can understand while the gaffer chose to stick with the trusted side that has gotten them to this point. Arsenal plays Chelsea tomorrow and it’s the North London Derby in the weekend, two monumental games that must be won, if Arsenal wants to stand any chance of ending the campaign as champions.
Jurgen Klopp made a plethora of changes when Liverpool visited Craven Cottage yesterday, with the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis MacAllister, Darwin Nunez and their star man, Mo Salah, rested, but with the Reds having such amazing depth in the side, the likes of Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota came up with the goods to send Liverpool joint top with Arsenal at 74 points.
Manchester City will return to Premier League action against Brighton on Thursday night, but with Arsenal and Liverpool can potentially be four points ahead, if they garner maximum points in their midweek games against Chelsea and Everton respectively. All three teams have a genuine chance of winning the Premier League which makes this the Mother of all Premier League title challenges.
Sayonara.
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