English Premier League: Odds stacked in Manchester City’s favour in title race but there could be one last twist

Last weekend in the English Premier League, the pulsating three-way title marathon was reduced to a two-horse sprint.

Liverpool’s fallow April continued as Jurgen Klopp dropped points against West Ham United, shredding the last shreds of a fairytale farewell, and fell aside. It’s now a straight shootout between Arsenal, leading Manchester City by a point, though Pep Guardiola’s men have a game in hand. The serial champions have destiny in their hands, whereas, the Gunners could only hope and pray that City slip in one of their four fixtures and they grab all nine points they could, leading to a suspenseful climax.

The odds, though, are stacked heavily in City’s favour. Not just that they have been champions in the past three seasons with a knowhow of how to keep their wits under pressure, not just that they possess late-season invulnerability, but their players raise their game by several notches when the finish-line starts to glimmer in their sight. Although Guardiola, or any other manager, doesn’t prefer taking a title pursuit down to the wire, City thrive in such situations, when they know they can’t afford to lose, or draw a game. “They like to play with pressure. They know it’s dead or alive,” Guardiola said.

Last season, a 12-match winning streak that spanned from late February to mid-May, combined with the faltering Arsenal, nailed them the league. This time around, they are on an unbeaten 20-game run in the league, winning 16 of them, and having not tasted defeat this calendar year yet. Baffling then is the perception that City have looked vulnerable this season. That Erling Haaland had a middling season (still leading the chart despite missing eight games); that Kevin de Bruyne had looked like a spent force;