Opta\u2019s supercomputer still ranks Arsenal ahead in the title race despite Manchester City\u2019s late reply at Brentford and a tightening gap. City reduced Arsenal\u2019s lead to two points with both clubs having three matches remaining, but the model continues to favour the Gunners in most scenarios.<\/p>\n
J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku had been on target twice against Everton on Monday night, yet those goals could not stop City dropping points in a 3\u20133 draw. Erling Haaland, who scored against Brentford, insisted his team were \u201cstill in it\u201d after the Everton setback. Saturday\u2019s reaction at Brentford and the potential importance of goal difference in this finish were both underlined by City\u2019s late flurry.<\/p>\n
Opta\u2019s projections list Arsenal on 76 actual points with a predicted 82.37 points and a 79.7% chance of winning the title. Manchester City sit on 74 actual points with a predicted 79.55 points and a 20.3% title probability. Arsenal were given an 85% chance of winning the league in the immediate aftermath of City\u2019s stumble on Merseyside earlier this week.<\/p>\n
The computer\u2019s view takes in upcoming schedules. City are shown with fixtures against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa either side of a trip to Bournemouth, a sequence the model judges tricky because Bournemouth remain in the chase for Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Manchester United\u2019s place in the Champions League was effectively sealed as they crawled to a goalless draw with Sunderland in their first game after securing qualification. Opta projects United to reach 68.01 points with a 100% chance of qualifying for Europe\u2019s top competition. Liverpool drew 1\u20131 with Chelsea and still need another win to guarantee a top-five finish. \u201cWe wanted to qualify for it weeks ago,\u201d Slot sighed. \u201cIt isn\u2019t the season we’re having, though. Sometimes it is really hard to accept these results because we are used to different ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bournemouth\u2019s manager reflected on survival and ambition after a 1\u20130 win over Fulham. \u201cToday was a very important step forward,\u201d Bournemouth\u2019s Andoni Iraola beamed after his side battled to a 1\u20130 win over Fulham on Saturday, \u201cbut we still have to get more points.\u201d Brighton\u2019s captain also noted the season\u2019s extremes. \u201cIt\u2019s a mental season,\u201d club captain Lewis Dunk gushed, \u201cone minute we\u2019re looking at relegation and now we\u2019re talking about Europe, it\u2019s great fun football, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
On the bottom end, Tottenham conclude the matchday with a crunch clash against Leeds on Monday and their chances of survival have improved, while West Ham do not face Arsenal until Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Opta’s simulations keep Arsenal favourites despite City’s late wins and a tightening title race ’26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,192,1056,172],"tags":[1162,1615,299],"class_list":["post-13720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-arsenal","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}