Manchester City face the stiffest test of their recent revival when they travel to Arsenal this weekend, as AFC Bournemouth seek to take down English Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Third-placed Nottingham Forest host Brighton & Hove Albion hoping to banish memories of last week’s 5-0 hammering at Bournemouth, while slumping Tottenham Hotspur aim to stop the rot at Brentford.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have won four of their past five Premier League games to climb back into the top four after a miserable run of results.
Photo: AP
In midweek they survived a huge scare against Club Brugge to scrape into the UEFA Champions League playoffs, further evidence that they might have turned a corner at last.
So is it back to business as usual for the four-time defending Premier League champions?
The fixture list has been relatively kind in recent weeks, but they now have a daunting run, with a trip to Arsenal followed by games against Newcastle United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest.
Mikel Arteta’s Gunners are unbeaten in 14 league games at home since a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa in April last year and they cannot afford to drop points as they hunt down Liverpool.
Second-placed Arsenal have been pipped to the title by City in each of the past two seasons, but will kick off six points above their old rivals, determined to state their credentials as serious challengers for the title.
Despite Tottenham’s plunge down the table, relegation talk has appeared fanciful, with an eight-point buffer between themselves and the bottom three, but when will Ange Postecoglou’s injury-hit team turn their form around?
Fellow strugglers Everton and Leicester City both closed the gap on Spurs last weekend.
The slide has been dramatic for Postecoglou’s men. In late November last year, Tottenham were sixth and just four points off second place. Since then, they have slumped to 15th, 23 points off second.
They have taken just four points from their past 10 games — only Southampton (one) have taken fewer.
It is still difficult to imagine that enough of the teams below Tottenham have the quality to reel them in, but they are alarmingly fragile.
Tomorrow, they travel across London to face mid-table Brentford, who boast an impressive home record and significant firepower.
If they do not start winning again soon, fans will start to think the unthinkable.
At the start of the season, a trip to Bournemouth’s modest Vitality Stadium would not have given Liverpool head coach Arne Slot sleepless nights, but it is a different story now.
Andoni Iraola’s team are unbeaten in their past 11 Premier League games, their longest run without defeat in the competition. The Spaniard, in his second season at the club, has done a remarkable job despite missing a host of players through injury, including Marcos Senesi, Marcus Tavernier, Luis Sinisterra, Evanilson and Enes Unal.
Iraola’s free-scoring side are seventh in the table, but are just a single point behind fourth-placed Manchester City as their fans dream of European competition next season.
Justin Kluivert, on 11 Premier League goals, is emerging from the shadow of his father, Netherlands star Patrick Kluivert, while Dango Ouattara scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest last weekend.
Bournemouth have already beaten Arsenal and Manchester City this season, but Liverpool, who have lost just once in the league, would be their biggest scalp so far.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
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