Man City’s eyes on prize as Leeds face the drop
>>LONDON: Manchester City can put one hand on the Premier League trophy today should they beat West Ham to extend their three-point lead over Liverpool at the top of the table.
The Reds were in FA Cup action last night when they faced Chelsea at Wembley, offering City the chance to stretch their advantage to six points and further boost a seven-goal lead on goal difference.
Manchester City have been in scintillating form since a 2-2 draw with Liverpool last month left the title race on a knife edge.
Pep Guardiola’s men have struck 22 goals in five games since to close in on a fourth title in five seasons.
They routed Wolves 5-0 on Wednesday.
Another convincing win at the London Stadium and the title will be realistically won given City’s better goal difference.
“Everybody knows with winning at West Ham and it will be almost, almost done, with the goal difference,” said Guardiola on Friday. “It’s absolutely a final.”
However, there are concerns for Guardiola in cobbling together a defence.
Ruben Dias, John Stones and Kyle Walker have been ruled out for the season, while Aymeric Laporte, Fernandinho and Nathan Ake are fitness doubts.
West Ham are also in need of the points in their bid to pip Manchester United to Europa League football next season.
David Moyes’ men trail sixth-placed
United by three points but have a game in hand over the Red Devils.
Spurs turn the screw on Arsenal
The battle to join City, Liverpool and almost certainly Chelsea in next season’s Champions League is alive after Tottenham thrashed north London rivals Arsenal 3-0 on Thursday.
Spurs are now just one point behind the Gunners and can leapfrog them with victory over Burnley today.
Arsenal are not in action until tomorrow when they travel to Newcastle.
“It was important to win, of course. We play before them on Sunday [today], they play Monday [tomorrow] night, so I feel like if we can win that, we obviously put a bit more pressure on them,” said
Spurs striker Harry Kane.
“I think I’d rather be going first than second, of course. But we still need to go out there and win. Otherwise it makes their job a lot easier.”
Battle at the bottom
The result between Spurs and Burnley also has huge ramifications at the bottom of the table.
Leeds sit in the bottom three due to their much-inferior goal difference compared to Burnley with both sides two points behind Everton.
Should Leeds fail to halt a losing run at home to Brighton, they could be virtually relegated this weekend.
“Our preparation as such is that we feel like we have to win the match,” said
Leeds boss Jesse Marsch, who has been unable to kickstart a faltering season since the sacking of Marcelo Bielsa in February.
Everton’s form at Goodison Park has been the key to edging towards survival.
The Toffees have taken 10 points from the last 12 available at home.
Four points from home games against Brentford and Crystal Palace on Thursday would stave off the financial disaster of dropping into the Championship.