Premier league: The title race, top four and the relegation battle

 

The race for the title is stiffer than ever with just one point between the two gladiators, where will this swing? (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Is it stiffer down below in the premier league than it is at the top? Quite debatable but every side of the argument would point at contexts and the quality of teams in the mix to fight out the argument, let’s take a look at the title race, the top four battle and the fight against the drop.

The title is between Manchester City and Liverpool and no matter how positive Liverpool are about the run in, they would rather be Manchester City; it is just a point advantage but that could prove the difference with both sides not playing each other anymore this season.

Liverpool’s next fixture is against Tottenham Hotspur, this fixture has lots of bearings on the title race as well as on the top four race. The Kops at home are a different animal and they have won twelve consecutive games at Anfield, but is Antonio Conte a factor?

Spurs beat Manchester City at the Etihad to drive themselves back into the top four conversations earlier on in the year and with that, they handed Liverpool some hopes of landing the title, the current dynamics doesn’t afford Liverpool the luxury of returning the favors so it would be a crazy game at Anfield.

A loss in that game for Spurs could see them going five points off the top four pace considering the fact that they currently sit fifth, two points behind Arsenal. Liverpool has only one job anyways, to keep winning and hope City snoozes somewhere.

The Cityzens know what is at stake for them, they cannot afford Liverpool to win the quadruple, they have the league in their own hands and then will have to hope things fall in line in Europe where they play Real Madrid in the massive Santiago Bernabeu floodlights.

City’s next league game is against a resurgent Newcastle, the Toons have nothing to play for anymore outside of pride, they can be a spoiler but trust City to do their job cleanly when they meet on Sunday. It is one game at a time for the champions.

You snooze, you lose is the order of the day in the Premier league. Newcastle will drive as much as they can against City but expect City to do what they have to do. It’s a two way street but the direction of the ribbon is yet to be seen.

 

To be continued…