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Chelsea and Arsenal are fighting Liverpool for the Premier League title
Chelsea had not dropped points since a 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on November 10. Reflecting on their draw with Everton that allowed Liverpool to open up a four-point gap, Maresca said: “I am absolutely happy. I just said to the players I am more happy today than I was after the Brentford game. The reason why was I was quite worried about this game: tricky game, tricky stadium, tricky team. Defensively they are top, they are one of the five best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheets so you struggle to create chances against them.
“It was not an easy game and you have to learn how to play different games. Football is not only just how good you play on the ball, it is how you defend and how you deal with that. We knew already it was a tough game in terms of clear chances if you saw their last game against Arsenal but in general you always struggle to create chances against them. In these kind of games, knowing you are not going to create many chances, you have to be clinical and in the first half we had the Nico (Nicolas Jackson) one with the keeper and the post from Nico and one or two chances inside the box. If you are able to be clinical then and score the game can be completely different but until that moment you will struggle.”
Last weekend Arsenal were involved in a goalless draw with Everton but got back to winning ways with a thumping 5-1 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday night. However, that win was marred by the sight of star winger Bukayo Saka leaving Selhurst Park on crutches. Discussing the injury, Mikel Arteta said: “He felt something in his hamstring. He couldn’t continue. He will have to be assessed, so I’m pretty worried about that one. It’s very difficult to (give a prognosis) now. They have tested him inside but it’s very difficult to say how bad it is. We lost Raheem (Sterling) yesterday, we don’t know for how long as well, so to lose two players in 24 hours is not good. Unfortunately with the amount of games that we are playing, every three days with this schedule, it doesn’t surprise me, but the team will react to that.”
Who will win the Premier League?
Based on the latest lot of results and each team’s performances so far, the analytics company has updated its end-of-season predicted table. Liverpool fans will be delighted to learn that Opta place the Reds at the top of the tree, with a projected 87.23 points and landslide 86 percent chance of lifting the title.
Arsenal are the predicted runners-up with an expected 77.50 points, with Chelsea finishing third on 73.86. Despite their nightmare run of form towards the end of the year, City are expected to come fourth but they will finish with a disappointing 69.27 points, based on the Opta table projection. City are expected to round off the top four, while Spurs and Manchester United are predicted to come ninth and tenth respectively. Everton will avoid relegation along with Wolves, while Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton are all projected to go down. Here’s a look at the Opta table in full.
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