Mikel Arteta is convinced that the contest for the Premier League crown among Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City will culminate on the season’s final matchday.
Presently, with only eight fixtures remaining, a mere three points differentiate the league’s leading trio, setting the stage for perhaps the most tightly contested and unpredictable championship race ever witnessed.
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This weekend’s fixtures could pivotally shift the standings, as Arsenal and City encounter tricky matches against Brighton and Crystal Palace, respectively, on Saturday. Meanwhile, table-toppers Liverpool are set to face their storied foes, Manchester United, on Sunday.
Despite the focus on approaching each match individually, Arteta firmly believes that the fate of the Premier League title will remain undecided until the season’s concluding day, May 19.
‘This is the level and it’s been the level in this league for the past six or seven years,’ the Arsenal boss said in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
‘The margins are so small, let’s see those numbers at the end of the last game and hopefully if those are maintained, I think we have a good chance.
‘We’re still not at the top and we have to transform that into winning and winning and winning, and that’s the only way to have the chance in the last game of the season to do it.’
Throughout the 31 seasons of the Premier League, the championship has been determined on the final day in only nine instances, with just three of those occurring in the past ten years.
In each of the last three instances, it was a showdown between City and Liverpool for the title, with City emerging victorious every time.
This is the first time that three teams have been in contention for the title on the final day. Arsenal’s sole experience of a title race going down to the wire was in 1999 when they were bested by Manchester United, who secured the treble that year.
On the concluding day of the season, all three challengers will play at home: Liverpool against Wolves, Arsenal versus Everton, and Manchester City against West Ham.
Despite Liverpool being the current favorites according to the bookmakers, Manchester City’s track record of late-season surges, like the 12-match winning streak that edged out Arsenal last year, means they remain a formidable contender.
However, Arteta is of the view that this season will be different, anticipating that each of the three title contenders will concede points in the remaining eight matches.
‘I don’t know what is going to happen but it is very unlikely that everybody wins every game,’ he added.
‘You look back a what happened in previous seasons and it is very, very unlikely – but you don’t know.
‘Let’s do everything we possibly can. Don’t leave anything left and play with the same enthusiasm and hunger and quality, and let’s see where it takes us.’
