Manchester City\u2019s comprehensive victory over Crystal Palace did not erase Phil Foden\u2019s warning that the title race can still swing wildly. “Lots of things can happen on the final day, I\u2019ve experienced it many times when the game doesn\u2019t go your way. We have our part to play.” That realism was echoed, if less emphatically, by Pep Guardiola. “Depends on them,” he shrugged to BBC\u2019s Match of the Day. “If they win two games\u2014nothing to do, nothing to talk. All we can be is in there just in case. The last two games are tough.” <\/p>\n
City now have a weekend without Premier League fixtures and must focus on an FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday. Arsenal do not resume until Monday, when they host already-relegated Burnley at the Emirates. Those scheduling details shape the immediate permutations. If Arsenal avoid a major slip at home, Manchester City will need maximum points at Bournemouth to prevent Arsenal from being crowned early. Should Guardiola\u2019s side fail to prevail on the south coast, the title would be decided in front of 11,000 fans on the Dorset coast on Tuesday, May 19. <\/p>\n
Bournemouth bring their own incentives to that fixture. It is Andoni Iraola\u2019s final home game before he leaves the Cherries, and the club retain European ambitions. They sit four points adrift of Liverpool and Aston Villa inside the top five and could still qualify for the Champions League by finishing sixth if the Villans finish fifth and win their Europa League final against Freiburg. That context suggests Bournemouth will have reasons to push hard regardless of the title implications. <\/p>\n
If Foden\u2019s scenario of a final-day decider materialises, the race would nevertheless remain in Arsenal\u2019s hands. The alternative is City taking wins at Bournemouth and against the team they host at the Etihad on Sunday, May 24, in which case the Gunners may also have to win their remaining matches to secure the title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal can seal the title soon, but Phil Foden says final-day drama is still a real possibility….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238,172],"tags":[1162,1615],"class_list":["post-13799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-andoni-iraola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799","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=13799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}