Arsenal produced a stellar three months to pull clear at the top of the Premier League table, then stumbled to three consecutive draws the past three weeks.
The Gunners get a chance to rescue their title chances on Wednesday.
First-place Arsenal visits second-place Manchester City with the pressure squarely on the league leaders.
“It is a final — against a team who has been the best team in England so far,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “They are five points ahead of us. … If we win it’s a step to getting it completely in our hands. We have this opportunity and we want to take it.”
Arsenal have 75 points with six league games remaining. Manchester City, riding a six-game Premier League winning streak, have 70 points but eight games to go. Given their late-season form and Arsenal’s recent dip, City would be in prime position to capture their fourth league title in five seasons should they emerge victorious on Wednesday.
The upcoming contest at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium was circled on the calendar for months as the key showdown between the league’s top two sides, but the onus was expected to be on the Sky Blues to get the win — before Arsenal dropped points in three straight matches.
The Gunners won six consecutive Premier League games before blowing a 2-0 lead en route to a 2-2 draw at Liverpool on April 9. One week later, the exact scenario unfolded: Arsenal went up 2-0 on the road in a London derby against West Ham United, only to finish in a 2-2 tie.
Arsenal’s skid peaked on Friday night.
Playing at home against last-place Southampton, Arsenal gifted a goal to Carlos Alcaraz in the first 30 seconds and later fell behind 3-1. The Gunners rallied for goals in the 88th and 90th minutes to rescue a draw and a potentially valuable point, but the performance against a relegation-threatened side further demonstrated their shaky form.
“I don’t see a lack of confidence,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “When a team does that, normally players start to hide. … I didn’t see a single player do that. They were all willing to take risks and initiative. That’s why we got back from 3-1 to 3-3 and should have won the game.
“The confidence is there. It’s just those moments. At this level you cannot give the goals away that we did. Simple as that.”
Guardiola said of Arsenal, “I know even though they have drawn the last three games, the way they play in big, big parts of the game, it is difficult to stop.”
Leaky defense has been the main problem for Arsenal heading into the Manchester City showdown. The loss of center back William Saliba to a back injury in mid-March has proven to be a major problem. Saliba and Gabriel formed a solid partnership in the middle of the back line all season, but the defense has buckled with Rob Holding filling in for Saliba.
Arsenal hasn’t produced a shutout in any of the five games Saliba has missed, yielding seven goals in the past three games.
Saliba is expected to be out again on Wednesday, bad news for an Arsenal team that is slumping despite being undefeated in its past 12 games in all competitions (7-0-5).
While Arsenal have sputtered, Manchester City have found their top gear.
Excluding a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich last Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League that saw City cruise to a comfortable 4-1 semifinal victory on aggregate, the Sky Blues have won their past 11 games in all competitions. They outscored their opponents 38-4 in those 11 contests.
Attacking players Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez have been superb in recent weeks, giving more support to sizzling striker Erling Haaland.
With two goals on April 15 against Leicester City, Haaland raised his Premier League total to 32, matching the record for a 38-game season. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah set the mark in 2017-18. The all-time Premier League single-season mark is 34, set by Newcastle United’s Andy Cole in 1993-94 and matched by Blackburn’s Alan Shearer in 1994-95, when the league season included 42 games.
A win over Arsenal would boost Manchester City’s hopes of completing just the second treble in English football history. In addition to battling the Gunners for the Premier League crown, City will face reigning champion Real Madrid in a two-leg Champions League semifinal next month, and they will oppose Manchester United in the FA Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 3.
Manchester United captured the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble in 1998-99.
–Field Level Media
