Now this is a classic Premier League title race. After nearly bundling the Premier League title a week ago, Arsenal have now found themselves back atop the league with their 4-2 win over Villa and City’s 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forrest.
The unbridled winning races that Man City and Liverpool embarked on were nice to watch, but this unpredictable title race between City and Arsenal is just so much more enjoyable.
Like I said, the title races between Manchester City and Liverpool over the last 3-4 seasons were a masterclass in what footballing excellence can look like as both of these teams were able to go on 15-game winning streaks to like it was nothing. However, given how predictable each City and Liverpool result became, this imperfect one between City and Arsenal is just so much better and exciting to watch.
From week to week, you really can’t predict which side will drop points and give the other an opportunity to sneak ahead of them. After City trounced Arsenal 3-1 last Wednesday, I was almost certain that the Citizens would go on a 7-8 game winning streak and force Arsenal to keep up with their own winning streak, which would have been another boring title race watch.
Yet, with Man City allowing a late Chris Wood equalizer for Nottingham Forrest yesterday, and Jorginho banking in a 90th minute shot off Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez to secure a 4-2 Arsenal comeback victory, the Gunners have retaken their lead atop the Premier League and pushed the gap to 2 points with a game in hand too.
It’s honestly incredible how Arsenal, who looked absolutely horrible for the opening 25-30 minutes in an extremely hostile Villa environment, were able to compose themselves, gather some momentum, and then go on and score three straight goals (after Phillipe Coutinho made it 2-1 for Villa in the 31′) to end their 4-game winless streak (including their FA Cup loss to Man City).
Reversely, it was even more peculiar to see Man City, who had just made up 8 points on Arsenal and beat them twice within two weeks to sit atop the table on GD, switch off and allow Nottingham Forrest, a bottom-half table club, to eke out a 1-1 draw.
There’s something off about this City side this season as even though they brought in one of the two best strikers in the world in Erling Haaland, who has been able to dominate the Premier League with his 26 league goals, City have regressed as an attacking side. They just aren’t as fluid on offense as they have been in the past seasons, which I can only attribute to the presence of Erling Haaland as the stationary striker.
Yes, he’s scored a boatload of goals, but his inability (or as we’ve seen thus far) to switch out to the wings and midfield, which is what Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Jack Grealish, Bernado Silva, etc. have done in the past, forces the rest of the squad to stay stationary in their positions as well.
And, with City now having lost more games this season so far (4) than all of last season combined (3), it’s clear that the lack of fluidity and movement has given opposing teams the chance to shut them down and stifle their creativity.
So, with City struggling, Arsenal have been given a wide-open path to claiming their first Premier League title since 2003. That is, if a team like Man United doesn’t sneak up behind them both and snatch the Premier League.
This is a crazy title race!
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