→ A balanced calendar
This Saturday, it is Arsenal which opens the ball with the reception Of Bournemouth and the ambition to take four points ahead of Manchester City. A sufficient advantage with two days to go? No, because Pep Guardiola’s men will still have four games to play. The first will be against Wolverhampton, who have only won one of their last seven games, before finishing with two away games, then the last at home: Fulham, Tottenham and West Ham. A busy schedule, but not insurmountable, while the Gunners will travel to Manchester United before finishing against Everton. Each team will have a tough opponent with Spurs for the title holders and Red Devils for Londoners. It is precisely Erik ten Hag’s team which will face the biggest dilemma since it will have to choose which rival to offer (or not) the title. Twenty years After pizzagateArsenal fans would surely love a gift from their archenemy.
→ City, sprint specialist
The four Premier League matches plus the FA Cup final will undoubtedly not be enough to tire out Kevin De Bruyne and his teammates. Those who remain on a hat-trick have also been eliminated from the Champions League and only have to concentrate on the national scene. With his aerodynamic cut, Pep Guardiola masters the final sprint to perfection. Since joining Manchester City, he has brought his record to 47 wins, 7 draws and 5 defeats over the last eight matches of each league season. While during the 2018-2019 financial year, Manchester City signed a perfect of the 25e at 38e day, the last three titles were also acquired in the home stretch (17 victories in 24 matches). This season, if we place the starting blocks at the start of the 31e day, the Citizens took twelve points out of as many as possible. Usain who ?
→ Word to the defense
With only 28 goals conceded, Arsenal are the strongest team in the Kingdom. This is thanks in particular to a Saliba-Gabriel hinge, which was lacking last season due to the Frenchman’s injury, and to David Raya, much more effective than reassuring in the cages. Opposite, the Skyblues are in their high average with 32 goals conceded and could pay dearly because the trophy is often won by the best defense in the championship. The last three years, Ederson and his men have not defied the statistics. Good news for Arsenal, but be careful not to rely too much on the figures, since, among the three teams to have triumphed by conceding more goals than their pursuers, is precisely Manchester City vintage 2018-2019.
→ Multiple scorers and a cannibal
Scoring can obviously count towards winning a title. Since 2020, when Manchester City failed in second place behind Liverpool despite scoring 102 goals (!), the champion has consistently had the best attack. Here again, the advantage is, for the moment, with Arsenal with three more goals than its competitor. A gap too small to bury Pep Guardiola’s team which, since the Spaniard took office, has only been ahead in this area during his first season. In terms of distribution, the two clubs have the same strategy with fifteen different scorers on each side. Sometimes criticized for his lack of performance this season, Erling Haaland still leads the individual ranking with 21 goals. Enough to eclipse Bukayo Saka and his 15 units. THE Gunners can tremble since they have never won the Premier League title (since 1992) when their top scorer was English. After all, Kai Havertz and his twelve goals can still perpetuate the tradition started by Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.
→ The Aston Villa factor
Those keen on commemoration have undoubtedly already noted that 2024 marks twenty years since Arsenal’s last league title, but also ten years since Manchester City won on the last day. THE Gunners the most superstitious also count on the fact that their team has only been crowned champions in even years since the establishment of the Premier League (1997-1998, 1999-2000 and 2003-2004), but that they do not Don’t get your hopes up because there wouldn’t be so much dust in the trophy cabinet if this was true every two years. On the other hand, one statistic is implacable: the last time Aston Villa went to the semi-finals of the European Cup, it was Arsenal who were champions. That’s not enough for you? That season, the Birmingham club had eliminated a French club during its journey, Stade Rennais at the time against LOSC this year. Of course, it was only the 2001 Intertoto Cup, but when you haven’t won anything for twenty years, anything is fair game.
