Manchester City Cruise Closer to PL Title | Ian Kim | Hampton School

Manchester City’s dominant display at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night in their Premier League clash against league leaders Arsenal saw them earn a golden 3 points, and now puts them in the favourable position for English football’s most prestigious prize.

After narrowly missing out on the top 4 placement in the Premier League last season due to their loss to Newcastle in their penultimate game, Arsenal have entered this season like a whole new team. Their same players from last season, seemingly playing slow paced football, and lack of confidence have been showing a completely new approach, playing lively football and full of passion. Arsenal’s impressive pre-season form continued into the beginning of this season’s campaign, going on a 5 game win streak, losing their first game to a developing Manchester United team and then proceeding to go 13 games unbeaten and placing them comfortably at the top of the league table, and they’ve shown no sign of letting that first place go for the majority of the season.

Not having been too far off Arsenal, Manchester City have also shown their usual winning ways throughout this season. Having won 4 out of the last 5 Premier League titles, most football fans expected them to become champions again this year, not having said their newly signed wonderkid striker Erling Haaland has been breaking goal scoring record after record this season, and in addition to their, arguably the best squad in world football, Man City seemed unstoppable. As a matter of fact, Arsenal had played Manchester City twice this season in all competitions before Wednesday night’s game (one game in the FA cup and one in the Premier League) and lost both times (1-0 and 1-3). However, Manchester City had dropped points against other mid-table teams, and Arsenal evidently took advantage of this, and for a long time, it looked like Arsenal were in for the jackpot.

Recently, Arsenal’s golden form has drastically dropped. Leading up to the big game against Man City, they drew 3 in 3 games, losing out to 6 extremely valuable points. Their star players, especially Bukayo Saka, failed to show their usual bright displays and Manchester City gradually moved closer to Arsenal in the table, closing the point gap. Before the game, Arsenal were still on top, with 75 points and City narrowly behind with 70 points, but having played a whole 2 games less. The clash between these 2 teams as many people called it ‘the title decider’, would most likely determine who won the Premier League.

The result – Manchester City OBLITERATED arsenal in a thumping 4-1 victory, with Manchester City’s star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne showing a MOTM display with 2 goals and 1 assist. This match will most likely haunt Arsenal fans, going through these last few games, as Manchester City, as of now, are in second place, 2 points behind Arsenal, with 2 games in hand. The title is seemingly in City’s grasp. Are Arsenal’s title hopes unquestionably gone?