The title: advantage City
A point lead and a better goal difference (+72 against +66) is all that separates defending champions City from their pursuers, Liverpool, 90 minutes from the end of the season.
A point is even all that separates these two teams if we combine all the matches since the start of the 2018-2019 season. This underlines how much their rivalry has escalated in recent years.
Sky Blues and Reds will play at home for the final round of the Championship. Liverpool will absolutely have to beat Wolverhamton (8th) to have a real chance of beating City at the post, hoping that the latter stumbles in the home straight.
Ironically, it is Aston Villa, coached by Steven Gerrard, emblematic captain of Liverpool in the 2000s, who will go to the Etihad. In the jersey of the Reds, the title was denied to the former international midfielder, sometimes in a cruel way, as with his famous slip in 2014.
Tottenham very close to the C1
If the 3rd place seems promised to Chelsea, the 4th, synonymous with accession to the Champions League next year, is not mathematically played.
However, it would take almost a miracle for Arsenal to dislodge Tottenham, with a two-point lead and a very advantageous goal difference (+24 against +9).
Assuming that Arsenal beat Everton, who ensured their maintenance on Thursday, and ruling out the hypothesis that they do so by at least 15 goals, Antonio Conte’s men would have to lose in Norwich, 20th and relegated for a long time, only to be overtaken by their neighbours.
C3 or C4 for Manchester United?
If they will not be sorry to see the end of an extremely laborious and frustrating 2021/2022 season, the Red Devils have one last effort to make to try to play at least the Europa League and not the Europa League Conference.
This will require preserving their 6th place from the last assault that West Ham will attempt, 7th with two units.
With a barely positive goal difference, at +1 against +11 for the Londoners, a draw at Crystal Palace may not be enough, even if the trip to Brighton (10th) from the Hammers will not be a game of pleasure.
Leeds and Burnley tremble
Everton’s stunning victory against Crystal Palace (3-2) on Thursday leaves only two teams struggling to avoid 18th place in relegation: Leeds and Burnley.
The Leeds Peacocks seemed almost saved 5 games ago, but they only took 2 points during this sequence where they faced Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea in particular, against 7 at the Clarets.
The two teams have the same number of points, but, again, the goal difference is likely to weigh heavily and Leeds’ -38 is a real drag compared to Burnley’s -18.
The latter will also have the advantage of receiving Sunday, even if it will be one of the teams in form of the second half of the season, Newcastle.
The task seems even more complicated for Leeds who had sacked Marcelo Bielsa at the end of February to replace him with Jesse Marsch.
The Yorkshire team will travel to Brentford, who are simply the 3rd team to have taken the most points over the last 10 days, and are therefore at great risk of leaving the top flight just two years after joining them.