City move to within one win of EPL crown
Rather than seeing if Manchester City win the English Premier League, Pep Guardiola will be on the golf course.
The manager planned to be playing a round with son Marius when City might be crowned champions if West Bromwich Albion were to win at Manchester United overnight.
‘‘Will I hear the scores? Bogey, double-bogey, birdie,’’ Guardiola said after City’s 3-1 victory at Tottenham yesterday.
Even if United don’t lose to the league’s bottom team, City can still seal the trophy before playing again. That will be achieved by United losing at Bournemouth on Thursday or if Jose Mourinho’s side draws with both West Brom and Bournemouth.
What is clear is City have their swagger back after a demoralising week that saw the leaders fail to seal top spot by losing the Manchester derby and exiting the Champions League.
For now, City are 16 points in front of United with five games to go after impressively inflicting fourthplace Tottenham’s second home loss of the season. And City will secure their third title since 2012 by beating Swansea next weekend.
‘‘People say it was a big failure, what happened last week, but they don’t understand the reality of football,’’ Guardiola said. ‘‘You can win the Champions League in seven games, the league is 10 months. I’m sorry; it’s much more important what these guys have done this season. Hopefully we can celebrate with our fans against Swansea.’’
Gabriel Jesus, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling scored in a commanding display that showed why City have 28 wins from 33 matches in the league.
Beating an English rival, though, proved beyond City in the Champions League, going out in the quarterfinals to Liverpool last week.
Jurgen Klopp’s third-place side looks set to seal a place in the continent’s top competition even if they don’t lift the European Cup after beating Bournemouth 3-0 to stay 10 points clear of fifth-placed champion Chelsea.
Tottenham still occupy the fourth Champions League spot, although Chelsea closed the gap to seven points after coming from behind to beat Southampton 3-2. By throwing away a two-goal lead, Southampton endangered their chances of avoiding the drop.
Crystal Palace and Huddersfield moved further clear of the drop zone with wins.
Wilfried Zaha scored twice as Palace beat Brighton 3-2 to move six points clear of Southampton, which occupies the final relegation place.
Huddersfield was a point above Palace after Tom Ince’s stoppagetime goal beat Watford 1-0.
Swansea moved five points ahead of Southampton after drawing with Everton 1-1.
Burnley’s unlikely pursuit of a Europa League spot continued with a 2-1 victory over Leicester thanks to goals from New Zealand’s Chris Wood and Kevin Long. Burnley are seventh, two points behind Arsenal.
Wolverhampton Wanderers will be returning to the Premier League next season after a six-year absence. Promotion was secured from the League Championship after Fulham drew with Brentford.
been at the club for five seasons but has played only 659 minutes, 446 of them this season.
Will any of them be given new deals? If they aren’t, will they be replaced by other young Kiwis?
Those questions won’t be
answered until a new coach arrives, and, if you see the glass as half empty, that’s where you might worry.
A new coach will bring new ideas, and until they are installed, there will be an air of uncertainty around the club and where it’s headed. Greenacre’s advice for the new boss was simple: Know the A-league, know the club. Darije Kalezic didn’t, and that’s a mistake that can’t be repeated.
It has been more than six weeks since Kalezic announced he wouldn’t be staying. The 14 players off contract will hope his replacement is unveiled soon.
Stuff was told Phoenix chairman Rob Morrison and general manager David Dome weren’t available for interviews this week.
That means there is no word as to when an appointment might be expected.
It also means there is no response to A-league boss Greg O’rourke’s remark earlier this month, about working with the club ‘‘to see whether or not they’re interested in improving’’ the metrics that will determine whether their licence to play in the A-league is extended past the end of the 2019-20 season.