A Premier League juggernaut has extended its lead atop the table, while its main title challenger has been held at home in a shock result.
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Elsewhere, Newcastle’s winning streak has been snapped in comprehensive fashion in another surprise outcome.
REDS STEADY SHIP TO REIGNITE TITLE CHARGE
Darwin Nunez struck twice in the final minutes as Liverpool got their Premier League title charge back on track with a dramatic 2-0 win against Brentford on Saturday.
Arne Slot’s side were in danger of enduring a third successive league draw after wasting a host of chances at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Of all the candidates to end Liverpool’s wobble, Uruguay striker Nunez would have been low down the list given his struggles over the last two seasons.
But he rode to Liverpool’s rescue with a stoppage-time brace that lifted the Reds’ seven points clear of second-placed Arsenal.
The Gunners can close the gap back to four points with a win against Aston Villa in Saturday’s late game.
But Liverpool will hold a game in hand on Arsenal and have the destiny of the title still firmly in their grasp thanks to the much-maligned Nunez.
Slot had admitted he couldn’t find a way to get the best out of the former Benfica star earlier this week.
The 25-year-old had scored just four goals in 26 games in all competitions prior to his unexpected double in west London.
Slot will gratefully take Nunez’s contribution as Liverpool’s first win in three league games kept them on course for a first title since 2020.
Since the turn of the year, Liverpool had only won one game in four in all competitions, beating minnows Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup third round.
They had drawn their previous two league games against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, while also losing 1-0 at Tottenham in the League Cup semi-final first leg, making this victory essential to steady their nerves.
Brentford kicked off with the joint-best home record in the Premier League, an impressive statistic they underlined by scoring twice in the closing stages to draw 2-2 with Manchester City on Tuesday.
Postecoglou: ‘Spurs need reinforcements’ | 01:11
GUNNERS COUGH UP 2-0 LEAD IN COSTLY DRAW
Liverpool now holds a six-point Premier League lead over Arsenal, who blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Gabriel Martinelli gave the Gunners a deserved first-half lead when Emi Martinez failed to prevent his effort crossing the line.
It was a similar story for Arsenal’s second as Martinez got a touch to Kai Havertz’s shot but could not keep it out.
Just when Mikel Arteta’s men seemed to be cruising, Villa hit back through Youri Tielemans’ header.
The Belgian midfielder then hit the post with the chance to level for Villa seconds later.
The visitors did equalise 22 minutes from time when Ollie Watkins cushioned in Matty Cash’s cross off the underside of the crossbar.
Arsenal thought they had a late winner, but Mikel Merino’s effort deflected in off Havertz’s hand and the goal was ruled out by a VAR review.
Haaland signs monster deal with City | 01:21
CHERRIES STUNNER TO SNAP MAGPIES’ STREAK
Justin Kluivert’s stunning hat-trick snapped Newcastle’s winning streak in style as Bournemouth stormed into the Premier League’s top six with a rampant 4-1 win at St. James’ Park on Saturday.
The Magpies were looking to set a club record with a 10th consecutive victory in all competitions but were thoroughly outplayed by the Cherries, who are themselves now on an 11-game unbeaten streak.
Kluivert, son of former Newcastle striker Patrick Kluivert, was the star of the show before Milos Kerkez fired in a fourth in stoppage time.
Defeat leaves Newcastle still in fourth but now just one point clear of Bournemouth in the race for a place in next season’s Champions League.
Bournemouth have never qualified for European competition before and Kluivert said that is the goal for an ambitious squad.
“Why not dream big and let’s see where we can end up,” said the Dutch international.
“Our run is also beautiful and that’s what we showed here today; that we are here to make an impression.” Alexander Isak’s hopes of matching the Premier League record scoring streak of 11 matches also came to an end on a humbling afternoon for the Magpies.
The Swedish striker had struck in eight consecutive games but was barely given a sniff of a chance by a brilliant Bournemouth display.
Andoni Iraola’s men flew out of the traps and never let up to move above defending champions Manchester City in the table.
The visitors should have led inside four minutes when Dango Ouattara’s shot was saved by Martin Dubravka and Antoine Semenyo blasted the rebound over.
Bournemouth had to wait just two minutes more to take the lead when Semenyo’s cut-back was swept into the far corner by Kluivert.
Newcastle were shellshocked in the early stages but looked to have restored some order when Bruno Guimaraes headed in Lewis Hall’s corner.
Yet the home side headed in at half-time behind once more after another classy finish from Kluivert to turn in Ouattara’s pass.
Bournemouth should have been well out of sight before they did finally get the third goal in stoppage time.
Ouattara had a goal disallowed by a VAR review as the ball had gone out of play before the Burkina Faso international prodded home.
David Brooks’s inventive backheel was then denied by a combination of Dubravka and the post.
Bournemouth were robbed of a famous victory in midweek when Reece James’ stoppage time free-kick rescued a point for Chelsea in a 2-2 draw.
This time, though, they were not to be denied of three thoroughly deserved points.
Kluivert took aim from outside the box to complete his second hat-trick of the season.
However, all three efforts this time came from open play after his trio of penalties downed Wolves in November.
The impressive Kerkez, who has been linked with a move to Liverpool and Manchester United, then drilled in the fourth to rub salt into Newcastle wounds.
After all, they’d overcome 5000-1 odds to win the Premier League seven years prior, made it to a Champions League quarterfinal in 2017 and hoisted the FA Cup in 2021.
But now, Leicester City must face the cold, harsh reality that now stares them in the face: they are a Championship club.
Despite a 2-1 victory over West Ham United on the final day, a long range pile-driver from Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure rendered the Foxes’ victory irrelevant and condemned the club to relegation.
An off-season of uncertainty awaits, with no fewer than eight players out of contract and a raft of stars like James Maddison and Harvey Barnes set to be sold.
The wage and transfer budget will have to be slashed to comply with the significantly decreased income due to the vast difference in revenue streams between Premier League and Championship clubs.
It still feels remarkable how steep this decline has been.
But it is the culmination of a mess entirely of the club’s doing.
And it is one former Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers saw coming before a ball had been kicked in anger this season.
HOW £50M ‘COLOSSAL DISAPPOINTMENT’ BEGAN INEVITABLE SLIDE
En route to Leicester’s Premier League title in 2016, one aspect of their football department was the envy of not just England, but the world.
The Foxes’ fearsome trio of Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez had been bought for a collective $AUD13 million, highlighting the club’s unrivalled eye for talent.
Although Vardy has remained at the club, Kante and Mahrez were flipped for a combined $142 million.
Over the coming seasons Leicester developed a reputation for selling a player for significant profit and reinvesting it in the squad.
Harry Maguire was bought for $22 million in 2017 and sold two years later to Manchester United for a staggering $142 million, a world record fee for a defender.
Ben Chilwell, who came through Leicester’s academy, moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2019 for $82 million while Wesley Fofana departed to the Blues last August for $131 million.
“For many years, Leicester were a well-run club but, equally, recruitment in recent times has been a colossal disappointment,” Percy wrote.
“The £50 million spent on Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Jannik Vestergaard in the summer of 2021 was a huge waste. Ryan Bertrand also signed as a free agent on big wages and has not started a match since December 21.
Jannik Vestergaard struggled to make his mark at Leicester City. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“After winning the title in 2016, most of the signings who followed were underwhelming.”
The Foxes soon struggled to find homes for players deemed not good enough.
The club also had to deal with players they knew would be out of contract at the end of the 2022/23 season, but no willing buyers — well, at the valuation Leicester wanted for them — emerged.
Percy described the contract farce as “mismanagement on a grand scale”.
Compounding the club’s financial woes further was the vast expenditure on the new training ground at Seagrave.
It is a facility to make most European clubs green with envy, but set the Foxes back an estimated $188 million and is a large and costly operation to continue running.
With the big outlays on players and the training ground and receiving little in the way of transfer fees or European qualification money, it forced Leicester to turn off the money tap for Rodgers.
It was a situation that caught the Northern Irishman, who had already commenced conversations with prospective transfer targets, by serious surprise.
Almost immediately, the goalposts were shifted.
And not for the better.
Leicester City invested heavily in their new training facilities. (Photo by Ashley Allen/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“From that moment onwards, Rodgers adopted a negative tone, talking about a challenging season before a ball was kicked and about the target being 40 points,” The Athletic’s Rob Tanner wrote.
“People around the club were genuinely shocked when he placed the bar so low. That message didn’t match Leicester’s ambition or the surrounds of the media suite at Seagrave where he said it.
“Ultimately, Rodgers has been proven right, but that negativity had already seeped into the psyche at the club, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
In the end, Leicester made just one signing in the summer: centre-back Wout Faes from Reims for $27 million.
But just two players of note went out the exit door in the form of Fofana and former skipper Kasper Schmeichel, who moved to Nice in Ligue 1.
It was the latter’s departure that spun the wheels of relegation faster, even if he was one of the club’s highest earners, with Percy labelling the sale as “a grave mistake.”
The Foxes failed to replace Schmeichel and instead put their faith behind backup goalkeeper Danny Ward, a decision that backfired significantly.
It wouldn’t take long for Leicester’s botched recruitment plans to seep out onto the field as the irreversible decline of the 2015/16 champions set in.
Danny Ward was symbolic of Leicester’s failures this season. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
PROPHETIC RODGERS WARNINGS EVERYONE IGNORED
Rodgers already had plenty of credits in the bank as Leicester boss.
Since his arrival from Celtic in February 2019, he guided the Foxes to consecutive fifth-place finishes and an FA Cup triumph in 2021 before dropping back to eighth last season.
The divide between the manager and Leicester’s passionate fanbase slowly crept in last season.
An embarrassing 4-1 thrashing in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the hands of Nottingham Forest, a Championship outfit last season, was a key moment that highlighted the disconnect.
After the defeat, Rodgers claimed the majority of his team “had achieved everything they can” in what was yet another prophetic call from the manager.
If anything, the eighth-place finish glossed over the fact two of Leicester’s three wins in the final four games of the season were big wins against teams who had already been relegated in Norwich City and Watford.
It was a wildly inconsistent season in which they won as many as they lost and failed to string more than two consecutive wins together.
Leicester’s malaise worsened at the start of the 22/23 season as the Foxes drew its first game against Brentford before losing their next six games in a row, including 5-2 and 6-2 defeats to Brighton and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
With the Foxes rooted to the bottom of the ladder, Percy felt the Spurs defeat was “surely the time to part ways,” especially since it was around the first international break of the season.
Yet Leicester owner Aiyawatt “Khun Top” Srivaddhanaprabha and director of football Jon Rudkin boldly elected to stick rather than twist.
Percy felt the decision simply proved what many had feared: Leicester had essentially blinded itself from the worst fate possible.
“The absence of ruthlessness allowed the club to drift,” Percy wrote.
The fans turned on Rodgers. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)Source: AFP
“It seemed to suggest a mindset of ‘everything will be OK’, despite all the warning signs.”
However, results turned in Leicester’s favour after the international window with five wins from eight games and went into the mid-season World Cup break sitting in 13th.
But normality for Leicester in terms of their season as a whole quickly resumed post-Qatar.
Four consecutive losses didn’t quite send Leicester plummeting down the table, but it certainly decreased the gap between them and the chasing pack fighting tooth and nail for survival.
A mini-revival of two wins in February over Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur — in which they scored eight goals — proved to be nothing more than a false dawn.
Despite several more defeats, including one against rock-bottom Southampton, Rodgers still remained in the dugout at the King Power Stadium.
However, the baffling patience of Khun Top and Rudkin wore out after Leicester’s 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on April 1 as Rodgers was dismissed the next day with the club sitting 19th.
Although it left Leicester with 10 games to salvage its season, it seemed as if there was no way to halt what felt like the inevitable.
“There was a realisation that things were going in one direction and Leicester’s slide has proven to be irreversible,” Tanner wrote.
“The damage was done.”
Adam Sadler and Mike Stowell were installed as caretaker managers in the hope of providing a bounce which often accompanies a change in the dugout, but it was not forthcoming.
Sadler and Stowell oversaw two defeats from two before former Aston Villa manager Dean Smith was handed the keys with only eight games left.
Smith had masterminded a miraculous escape once before with Villa during the Covid-affected 19/20 season and no doubt felt he could do the same again with former Foxes boss Craig Shakespeare and John Terry alongside him.
Rodgers’ successful tenure as Leicester boss rapidly spiralled out of control towards the end. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
A win against Wolves and draws against Leeds and Everton provided glimmers of hope, but consecutive defeats to Fulham and Liverpool ultimately proved to be the death knell for Leicester.
Even though the Midlands side did all they could on the final day to survive, their reliance on Bournemouth to get a result against Everton proved fruitless.
An off-season of significant change awaits Leicester.
The likes of Caglar Soyuncu, Ryan Bertrand, Jonny Evans and Youri Tielemans will leave the club as free agents, representing a net loss of $115 million.
Then there’s the group of Leicester stars who will be forced out the exit door to help finance new signings.
James Maddison, who is also out of contract at the end of next season, is almost certain to depart in a deal estimated to be $65 million.
Electric winger Harvey Barnes is another likely departure too.
But most pressing is which manager will be entrusted with the duty of getting Leicester promoted.
Former Chelsea and Brighton manager Graham Potter is the Foxes’ dream candidate but at this stage it seems highly unlikely he would drop a division.
Regardless, Manchester United legend Roy Keane believes the vacancy is one that will have several parties highly interested.
“A lot of managers would love to take that job,” Keane told Sky Sports.
“Especially if you get the backing they’ve had over the last few years — obviously it’s not been great the last 12 months — but generally Leicester have had good backing.”
It remains to be seen if Dean Smith will stay on as Leicester boss next season. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
WHY REMARKABLE DECADE HAS FOXES PRIMED FOR PL RETURN
Although it is a sombre mood at the King Power Stadium, it presents a time to reflect on what has been the greatest period of the club’s rich history filled with long-lasting memories.
There’s the great escape of the 2014/15 season under Nigel Pearson when the Foxes looked dead and buried, only to survive by the skin of their teeth.
It provided the platform for Leicester to complete one of the most remarkable stories in the history of sport when they won the Premier League title.
A memorable run to the Champions League quarter-finals in the following season also provided plenty to sing about.
Unfortunately the period of success was not without a tragedy which rocked the entire football world.
Former Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was one of five people who died in a helicopter crash just outside the King Power Stadium after the Foxes’ game against West Ham United on October 27.
His son Khun Top continues to work tirelessly to honour his late father’s vision he had for the club he loved dearly.
There is certainly frustration in the manner with which Leicester went down, especially since it was largely preventable.
But they are no strangers to the Championship and, with the star power they already have in the squad, are primed to bounce straight back.
Socceroos star Harry Souttar, a January signing for the club, could prove to be a key figure in Leicester’s push for an immediate return given Soyuncu and Evans, two fellow centre-backs, will depart in the summer.
It promises to be a massive off-season for the club as they prepare for life in the second division for the first time since 2014.
With a new face in the dugout required and a squad refresh, this moment presents a golden opportunity for Leicester to turn a new page.
But it’s also a timely reminder for other clubs: if you dare to fly too close to the sun, it will end in flames.
AUSSIE STAR’S PL DREAM TURNS INTO NIGHTMARE AS DREADED FATE SEALED
Harry Souttar’s Premier League dream has sadly turned into a living nightmare as Leicester City was relegated despite a 2-1 win over West Ham United on the final day.
The Foxes had to win and hope Bournemouth would hold Everton to at least a draw.
Although Dean Smith’s side held up their end of the bargain, a thumping strike from Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure killed off any chance of Leicester staying up.
Souttar was an unused substitute for the do-or-die clash as he now contemplates life in the Championship once again barely five months after leaving Stoke City for Premier League life.
Former Socceroo Robbie Slater claimed it’s “turned out a nightmare move after what seemed like a dream move” but believes the towering centre-back is best served by sticking around at the club.
“I think he will stay,” Slater told Fox Sports News.
“I think for Leicester and, if it’s Dean Smith who does stay there, I think someone like Harry Souttar will be a real bonus for Leicester’s hopes for bouncing back up into the Premier League at their first shot in the Championship.
“We have seen throughout history that it doesn’t always end up being the case that way.
“It’s important for him or Leicester to keep him because of his experience in the Championship and what he did at Stoke City.”
Ecstasy for Toffees… agony for Foxes | 01:03
MIXED FORTUNES FOR SCOTTISH CONTINGENT
Souttar wasn’t the only Aussie to suffer the cruel fate of relegation, as Aziz Behich and Mark Birighitti were sent to the second tier of Scotland with Dundee United.
Behich played the full 90 minutes for the Tangerines in a 3-2 loss to Motherwell while Birighitti was an unused substitute.
However, it was a more enjoyable weekend for several of the other Aussies in Scotland.
Although he was out with an injury, Aaron Mooy was front and centre during Celtic’s league title celebrations after a resounding 5-0 win over Aberdeen at Celtic Park.
The Socceroos midfielder will now hope to be fit enough for Celtic’s Scottish FA Cup final against Inverness Caledonian Thistle as Ange Postecoglou’s side look to complete the domestic treble.
Down in the Scottish capital, Kye Rowles, Cameron Devlin and Nathaniel Atkinson all logged 90 minutes for Hearts against Hibernian in the Edinburgh derby.
Hearts drew 1-1 against their local rivals in a result which secured a spot in the Europa Conference League for the former.
Aaron Mooy was a part of Celtic’s title celebrations after the Hoops’ 5-0 win over Aberdeen. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE GROUNDS …
Awer Mabil had the pleasure of lifting a trophy as Sparta Prague secured the league title despite a 1-0 loss to Viktoria Plzen.
The winger entered the contest in the 66th minute but was unable to help his team get back in the contest, although it mattered little.
Mabil moved to the club on loan from Spanish side Cadiz in January.
In the Netherlands, Mat Ryan couldn’t prevent AZ Alkmaar from slipping to a 2-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Eredevisie.
However, the result kept AZ in fourth place and meant the club secured a spot in next season’s Europa Conference League playoff.
Another Aussie in relegation trouble is midfielder Ajdin Hrustic.
Hrustic didn’t see any game time for Serie A side Hellas Verona in a 1-1 draw against Empoli which subsequently dropped the Aussie’s team into the relegation zone.
They now face the uphill task of getting a result against AC Milan on the final day of the season and hope Roma can beat Spezia.
Erling Haaland fired Manchester City to a third consecutive Premier League title, but there was also plenty to celebrate for Arsenal, Newcastle and Manchester United as they secured a return to the Champions League next season.
Liverpool and Tottenham were among the major disappointments as they crashed out of the top four despite high hopes for the season.
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Chelsea’s scale of underachievement took some beating as the Blues finished 12th after spending over £500 million ($A950 million) on new players.
After Sunday’s final round of fixtures, AFP Sport looks at the winners and losers from the 2022/23 Premier League season:
WINNERS
Erling Haaland
Haaland already has one trophy, individual prizes and a series of new records to show for his first season in England and is still only getting started.
Any doubts over how Pep Guardiola’s men would adjust to having a focal point up front were banished as Haaland’s 36 Premier League goals set a single-season record.
The 22-year-old has collected a clean sweep of Premier League player, young player and football writers’ player of the season awards.
But it is two more pieces of silverware that will turn Haaland’s remarkable season into a historic one.
Beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3 and Inter Milan a week later in the Champions League final and City will become just the second English side to ever do the treble.
Manchester City’s Norwegian striker Erling Haaland.Source: AFP
Brighton
Brighton were one of the beneficiaries of a season of managerial change despite having their coach Graham Potter poached by Chelsea in September.
The Seagulls duly pocketed £20 million in compensation for Potter and hired Roberto De Zerbi, who has led the club into Europe for the first time in their history.
Guardiola hailed the Italian as “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years” for his revolutionary style that has made Brighton one of the most attractive sides in Europe to watch.
The Premier League’s predators are already waiting to pounce for the likes of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister in the transfer window, but Brighton have become a conveyor belt of young talent.
Of the 20 goals scored by teenagers in the Premier League this season, 11 came from the Brighton trio Evan Ferguson, Julio Enciso and Facundo Buonanotte.
From hope to horror in 92-seconds | 00:46
Newcastle
Backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Newcastle look the best long-term bet to challenge Manchester City’s dominance of English football.
But few expected the Magpies’ rise to be so rapid that they could secure Champions League football for the first time in 20 years in the first full season under the new regime.
Newcastle’s success can also not be explained solely by money. They appear to have learned from the early days of other state-backed projects City and Paris Saint-Germain in not splashing out immediately on superstars.
Instead, Eddie Howe has managed to get the best out of players that were previously seen as expensive flops on Tyneside such as Joelinton and Miguel Almiron and fostered a fine team spirit despite an influx of new arrivals.
LOSERS
Chelsea
The Blues finished with their lowest ever Premier League points tally despite spending more than any club ever has in one season in the transfer market.
Mauricio Pochettino is expected to be named as the new man in charge at Stamford Bridge in the coming days, but the Argentine has a huge job on his hands to turn a bloated squad back into contenders at the top of the table.
The biggest concern for Chelsea fans will be whether the club’s new owners will quickly learn from their foolhardy approach in their first season in charge.
Managerial stability
Only nine Premier League sides ended this term with the same man in charge that started the campaign, with a record 14 managers dismissed throughout the course of the season.
But a change of coach rarely brought about the desired result. Chelsea, relegated Southampton and Leeds were the three clubs to fire two managers.
By contrast, there were no sackings among the clubs that finished in the top six, while Brentford and Fulham enjoyed brilliant seasons under Thomas Frank and Marco Silva respectively.
Even at the bottom, West Ham and Nottingham Forest were rewarded for sticking by David Moyes and Steve Cooper as they stayed up.
Leicester
Seven years after their stunning title triumph, Leicester will swap trips to Anfield, Old Trafford and the Etihad Stadium for less glamourous assignments at Rotherham, Plymouth and Hull in the Championship next season.
Relegated Leicester’s fall from grace came as a huge shock as a talented squad boasting the likes of James Maddison and Youri Tielemans failed to deliver on their potential.
A run of two wins in their last 17 games sealed Leicester’s fate as they crashed into the second tier for the first time since 2014.
Rarely does a regular season Premier League game warrant pay-per-view attention.
But that’s what Arsenal’s clash against Manchester City on Thursday morning demands.
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It is a contest which could very well decide the Premier League title, despite both sides having plenty of games left to play.
The Gunners will make the trip to the Etihad on the back of three consecutive draws, all of which felt like defeats knowing the implications of such a result.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was forced to watch his troops blow a two-goal lead not once but twice before helping his side overcome a 3-1 deficit to last-placed Southampton to draw 3-3.
It’s now left the gap between Arsenal and City to just five points, with the latter having two games in hand.
Some may subscribe to the school of thought that although City has the advantage in games in hand, they are still behind on the ladder and therefore it is advantage Arsenal.
But most supporters need no reminders of City’s ruthlessness.
Despite competing on three fronts, Pep Guardiola’s side have found a way to maintain form across the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
Meanwhile, Arsenal crashed out of the Europa League in a penalty shootout to Sporting and have since stumbled to a series of poor results in the Premier League.
So, how will this heavyweight slugfest play out on Thursday?
It’s been nothing short of a dream season for Arsenal fans and given they will almost certainly finish inside the top two, the team has obliterated all pre-season expectations.
But having been top of the table for just about the entire season to date, to relinquish its grip on the title would be the cruellest of blows, especially this late in the season.
Even after a wretched run, by a title challenger’s standards, of two losses and a draw — with one of those defeats coming against Manchester City — the Gunners went on to win seven games in a row.
However, one key difference between Arsenal’s form before and after the World Cup break hints at what’s gone wrong for Arteta’s side.
Before the World Cup, Arsenal conceded 11 goals from 14 games, an extremely impressive figure.
But since play resumed in late December, the Gunners have shipped 23 goals in 18 games with 10 of those coming in the past three games.
That alarming amount of goals conceded has coincided with the absence of French defender William Saliba, who went off with a back issue against Sporting and hasn’t been sighted since.
William Saliba has been a vital cog in Arsenal’s backline. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Arsenal are a weaker outfit without the Frenchman and that’s a fact.
With Saliba in the backline, Arsenal’s goal-against figure sits at a healthy 0.9.
In the five games he has not featured since his back injury, it balloons out to 1.8.
Rob Holding has come into the team to cover for Saliba’s absence, but his lack of pace has been worryingly exposed on numerous occasions.
It also creates a larger problem within the team’s structure that, according to former Gunners player Adrian Clarke, explains the recent struggles.
“When Saliba plays, Arsenal are able to squeeze up the pitch and keep the three units compact and high, because he’s got the speed to recover,” Clarke told The Athletic.
“If a team knocks one over the top, Saliba is invariably quick enough to get there.
“What’s happening now, I think, is that they’re setting the line a bit deeper to protect Holding, which is then making a bigger hole in the midfield.
“And as brilliant as (Thomas) Partey has been this season, he is struggling at the moment to carry that entire midfield on his own because the way that the team needs to protect Holding means the space around him (Partey) has been expanded.”
Rob Holding’s lack of pace has been exposed on multiple occasions. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP)Source: AFP
There’s also the question of whether Arsenal peaked perhaps a little too early in the run-in.
The Gunners were forced to dig deep with stoppage-time winners against Aston Villa and Bournemouth during their recent seven-game win streak.
“Ronnie O’Sullivan claims he cannot win a world championship in snooker unless he swats aside his early opponents with ease,” Brown wrote.
“Andy Murray wins two unforgettable five-setters in Melbourne but then discovers he has nothing more left to give.
“Arsenal seem to be fast approaching the same juncture. They have entertained everybody royally for eight months, but they are running on fumes.”
Arsenal’s form of late suggests they don’t have much more left in the tank. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
WHY CITY’S ‘GLARING TRUTH’ HAS THEM READY TO EAT GUNNERS ‘ALIVE’
As for City, well, it appears they’ve got plenty of miles left in them.
After all, this is not their first rodeo when it comes to neck-and-neck title races.
During the 2018/19 season, City won their final 14 games in a row to squeak past Liverpool by a solitary point to win the league.
Even as recently as last season, Guardiola’s side only secured the title on the final day after coming back from 2-0 down against Villa to win 3-2 with all goals coming in the final 15 minutes.
But unlike the Gunners, City have not had to pull a rabbit out of the hat to secure victories.
Since losing two in four games at the start of the year against Manchester United and Spurs. Guardiola’s side have been on a tear and played their opponents off the park.
City have won eight games from nine, the exception being a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest.
In that stretch, City have scored 25 goals — an average of 2.7 a game — while only conceding seven.
City refuse to go away. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
It points to a team of cool, experienced heads when they need it most having walked this very path in regards to title challenges.
A certain goal machine by the name of Erling Haaland also helps, too.
Aside from the Norwegian’s freakish goalscoring ability, which has him on track to shatter the record for most goals scored in a season, Guardiola has shored up the defence and overseen marked individual improvements.
It paints a contrasting picture with the happenings at the Emirates, especially at this stage of the season.
And it’s why Brown feels that a “glaring truth” has been confirmed: City “are ready to eat them alive.”
“City have shown that these are the periods that sort the champions from the mere pretenders,” Brown wrote.
“Arsenal, sadly, are wilting when it matters most.”
Brown added: “It has taken longer than anybody imagined to arrive, but Arsenal are truly teetering now, lurching towards the finish line as inelegantly as any drunk struggling to catch the last Tube home from Holloway Road. This is not, to put it bluntly, championship pedigree.”
Erling Haaland has scored goals for fun under Pep Guardiola for City this season. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
There exists the very real possibility Arsenal destroy everyone’s predictions for not just this contest, but the entire title race.
A win at the Etihad would undoubtedly provide a needed jolt to get them back on track after a serious wobble.
However, City, much like a lion stalking a wounded gazelle, seem inevitable.
With Haaland bearing his teeth in pursuit of every goalscoring record in the books and Jack Grealish starting to look like the £100m man he’s being paid to be, it’s hard to back against City.
But, similar to how Tyson Fury miraculously rose to his feet after being knocked down in his first fight against Deontay Wilder, Arsenal aren’t ready to lay down and accept a beating just yet.
