After Man City almost lost to Everton, the flag was in Arsenal's hands, but that does not mean they will lift it easily. After the draw at Hill Dickinson, Pep Guardiola said that even with only 1 point, it is still much better than a defeat to The Citizens. The Etihad home team has lost the advantage to Arsenal but has not surrendered in this sprint.
Man City fans will be a little sad, Arsenal fans will be happy, and for neutral fans, they are enjoying a true sprint race, a dramatic championship race only available in the Premier League.
The match between Arsenal and Man City is slightly different from recent seasons. This time, although still competing dramatically, Arsenal is no longer easily out of breath. Man City once seized the opportunity, but they also did not achieve the perfect state as in previous championship seasons. Although Man City is temporarily being "cut off", Arsenal can also stumble at any time in the last 3 matches.
When Man City and Liverpool competed with each other in the Pep Guardiola - Jurgen Klopp era, although there was still the same drama as now, the two teams were almost perfect. This especially happened in the 2018-2019 season, when they finished with 98 and 97 points, even without a draw in the last 2 months of the season.
Arsenal, although just winning resoundingly 3-0 against Fulham, the performance like the defeat to Bournemouth can be repeated at any time. Man City can also make silly mistakes like the situation of serving a feast to the opponent from Marc Guehi. Both teams have experienced such incidents and there is no certainty that they will not repeat it again.
After the draw with Everton, Pep Guardiola had very honest shares about the race situation between the two teams but also skillfully put more pressure on Arsenal. Pep's statements like that are not the first time he has spoken, everyone understands that this great strategist always knows how to push his opponent into a sweet trap in the media and then become negligent and lose focus.
I understand things are no longer in Man City's hands right now, they were before but not now.
Pep's statement made Arteta unable to avoid winning the next match if he did not want to fall into a situation where when the opponent has "pretending" to give up, they cannot overcome themselves to decide their own fate. In recent years, Pep's statements like this have appeared quite a lot and only Klopp has enough courage to overcome it.
When the opportunity is temporarily in Man City's hands, Arsenal is in a chasing position and has a comfortable mentality with the 3-0 victory over Fulham. Now, they must really break away when Man City is chasing behind. Sometimes running a race with always a pursuer will be much more tiring than just focusing on moving forward.
This Sunday, Arsenal will travel to West Ham's stadium in the context that the home team wants to win at all costs. In the past, the Olympic Stadium team caused a lot of difficulties every time the two teams clashed. When the death door (relegation) is right in front of them, Nuno Santo's army promises to play with the greatest effort since the beginning of the season.
As for Man City, since mid-January after the defeat to Real Madrid, they have not suffered any more defeats. But is it certain that Pep Guardiola's team will continue to be unbeaten when facing Brentford? At this time, The Bees still have hope of participating in the Champions League and the London team will not miss it.
The advantage belongs to Arsenal, but looking at this year's Premier League season, everything can change extremely quickly.
