By Peter Hall
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) – When Manchester City won at Arsenal last week to move top of the Premier League, many assumed the champions would have no trouble going on to a fifth title in six seasons, but the north Londoners proved on Saturday the race is far from won.
And to make City’s title defence all the more difficult, rivals Manchester United are not going away either.
This time of year is often where a Pep Guardiola-led City side normally slide to top gear. In 2018-19 and 2020-21, 15 game winning streaks in each season, which began mid-campaign, helped steer City onto league title glory.
Against leaders Arsenal last Wednesday, City looked back to their best as they ran out 3-1 winners to leap-frog the Gunners — a performance that left their title rivals fearing the worst.
However, Saturday’s results saw the pendulum swing once more. Wednesday’s loss looked to have done damage to Arsenal’s confidence as they trailed 2-1 at Aston Villa in the day’s early kick off.
Showing the character of champions, three goals without reply, including two in stoppage time, sent them back top.
“If you want to be at the top, you are going to have to win games in many different ways,” coach Mikel Arteta said.
“Credit to the boys. The dressing room was absolutely bouncing. It was a big effort to play less than 72 hours ago after the (City) game that we had, and after the result that we had which obviously morally was touching.”
City were fully expected to maintain their winning run at Nottingham Forest, especially after taking the lead in a dominant first-half display.
Further wasted chances ended up costing them dear, however, as Forest netted a late leveller, breathing further life into what promises to be an exhilarating title race, rather than a procession like in several of City’s previous league triumphs.
What makes this season potentially even more enticing is that there could well be three teams in the running for the crown.
City and Liverpool had been streets ahead of the rest of the field last term and were expected to do battle, unopposed, for this season’s crown.
However, as Liverpool have disappointed and sit eighth in the standings, United have joined Arsenal in enjoying a turnaround in fortunes much quicker than anyone expected.
United finished with their lowest-ever Premier League points tally last term, with a disjointed squad looking a long way from title contenders.
New coach Erik ten Hag, however, has transformed the club, with the 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday, their eighth victory in their last 11 league games, moved them five points behind Arsenal in third, having played one game more.
Ten Hag is keen to play down any title talk, but with his team in the form they are in, they cannot be discounted just yet.
(Reporting by Peter Hall; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
