Arsenal\u2019s pursuit of a first top-flight title in 22 years hit a fresh obstacle after dropping points for a second successive Premier League game. A 2\u20132 draw at home to bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers denied the Gunners the chance to stretch their advantage to seven points over Manchester City. Instead, Arsenal head into a congested spell with a five-point lead and a game played more than City.<\/p>\n
That margin arrives ahead of a busy run before the March international break and underlines how quickly the title picture can shift. Arsenal (58 points) travel to Tottenham on Feb. 22, then return to the Emirates for Chelsea on Mar. 1. A trip to Brighton follows on Mar. 4 and Everton visit on Mar. 15. Bournemouth are scheduled at the Emirates on Apr. 11. Arsenal are on the road for the third Premier League game running this weekend, although the shortest trip in the calendar beckons for Arteta\u2019s men. They say form goes out of the window on derby day, but it\u2019d be an almighty upset if Igor Tudor\u2019s Tottenham Hotspur take points off the Gunners on Sunday afternoon. The north London derby concludes their February slate, and Chelsea will visit the Emirates Stadium to kick off March.<\/p>\n
Manchester City (53 points) face a sequence that could allow them to close the gap. City\u2019s league fixtures include Newcastle at home on Feb. 21, then Leeds away on Feb. 28, Nottingham Forest at home on Mar. 4, West Ham away on Mar. 14 and Chelsea away on Apr. 11. Pep Guardiola will know that the outcome of the Carabao Cup final could have a bearing on the title race, but the dynamic at the summit may be altered drastically by the time that game rolls around. Manchester City will be chasing maximum points from their next four games. Newcastle are up next, and they have a diabolical record at the Etihad Stadium, while Leeds and Nottingham Forest are fighting against relegation but haven\u2019t quite reached desperation mode yet.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s schedule leaves little margin for error through March and into April. City\u2019s upcoming fixtures present a chance to exploit momentum, and both clubs now face a critical sequence of matches that could determine how the title race evolves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal draw with Wolves leaves a five-point lead as both teams navigate key Premier League fixtures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1056,969],"tags":[1162,1066],"class_list":["post-6944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-man-city","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944","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=6944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}