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Panic on the streets of London as Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea, hit dire straights.
Published Apr 23, 2026 • 6 minute read
Manchester City's Erling Haaland (bottom) celebrates after scoring his team's second goal against Arsenal.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland (bottom) celebrates after scoring his team's second goal against Arsenal. Getty Images
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There’s a Wonderwall going up in Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s citizens have moved to the top of the table and plan to stay there. Can Arsenal climb it and get back to the top?
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Arsenal had been in first place for 207 days until Wednesday night. In early March, Arsenal had a 10-point lead atop the table, looking to break their 22-year title drought.
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A little over a month later and they’re in second place. Again. All hope’s not lost as they are level on points with new leaders City and are level on goal difference, but are behind on goals scored, which is the second tie break.
Arsenal have looked nervous and edgy in losing their past two games. Their loss last weekend to City was a massive blow and then City won their game in hand 1-0 against Burnley on Wednesday to edge ahead by a nose.
Arsenal’s wobbles seemed to start when they lost the Carabao Cup final to City in February, then were knocked out of the FA Cup by lower-league Southampton.
And then back-to-back league losses to Bournemouth and City meant they lost their grip on the top spot.
Yet, they’re still in the Champions League semifinals. It’s a competition they’ve never won and have only made the final once. They’re frequently taunted by Chelsea and Manchester United fans who serenade them with “Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that.”
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So while losing a 10-point lead atop the table would be crushing, taking home the Champions League trophy for the first time would still make it an amazing season for the Gunners.
But they’ll have to get out of their own heads first. They can land a psychological blow and put pressure back on City this weekend.
Guardiola’s men are playing an FA Cup semifinal on Sunday against Southampton while Arsenal play at home in the league against Newcastle, who are in their own mini-crisis after losing three in a row.
This fight may well come down to goal difference and Arsenal’s schedule looks a lot softer on paper, though they do have the Champions League to consider when it comes to any form of player rotation. Here’s a look at their respective run ins.
Arsenal: Newcastle (h), Fulham (h), West Ham (a), Burnley (h), Crystal Palace (a)
Manchester City: Everton (a), Brentford (h), Bournemouth (a), Crystal Palace (h), Aston Villa (h).
Those fixtures look far tougher for City, even in terms of piling up goals to seize the advantage should both teams run the table. Travel isn’t a huge demand in the EPL compared to North American leagues, but Arsenal don’t even have to leave London with their two remaining away games being West Ham and Crystal Palace. Burnley has been officially relegated too, so that looks like a gimme.
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City won’t find it easy at Everton or Bournemouth and Aston Villa could be fighting for a Champions League spot on the last day of the season. Bournemouth’s most recent loss was on Jan. 3, they’ve had a ton of draws in there but they’ve gone 14 games without a loss and just a draw for City could hand Arsenal the title. Brentford won’t be easy either, having drawn their past five games.
Guardiola’s City squad have an advantage in that they’ve done this before, crushing opposing fans’ souls as they win out. Famously they beat Liverpool to the title twice by a single point. They know how to win.
If Arsenal can put in a solid shift and win by a few goals this weekend against Newcastle, it will help their mentality immensely. But if they play poorly or drop points, you can only see the nerves continuing to fray.
Chelsea in freefall, fire another manager
Elsewhere there really is panic in the streets of London as Chelsea and Spurs are both in freefall. Chelsea followed Tottenham’s road map and fired their second manager of the season this week after Liam Rosenior was let go after the Blues lost their fifth game in a row this week, 3-0 to Brighton.
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Chelsea will have an interim manager in place this weekend for their FA Cup semifinal versus Leeds, but with just four games to go, they’re seven points behind Liverpool for the last Champions League spot.
Brighton and Bournemouth have both moved past Chelsea to leave them in eighth spot. If Brentford beat Manchester United and Everton beat West Ham this weekend, Chelsea would fall to 10th place.
Not where you’d think they’d be after spending $2.8 billion on players in the past four years.
And then there’s Tottenham. With four games to go, they’re still in the relegation zone. They did get a point last week in a draw with Brighton, but that only matched West Ham, who also got a point. Nottingham Forest won, so they’ve moved five points clear of Spurs, so it looks like it’s down to another London battle between Tottenham and West Ham to see who joins Wolves and Burnley in the Championship next season.
Here’s a look at both teams run ins:
Tottenham: Wolves (a), Aston Villa (a), Leeds (h), Chelsea (a), Everton (h)
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West Ham: Everton (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (h), Newcastle (a), Leeds (h)
It may all come down to how much impact new Spurs manager Roberto Di Zerbi has, but on paper it looks like you’d pencil in two wins for each team, so it may come down to eking out a draw or two.
Stock up
Brighton: Won four and drawn one in their past five to move up to sixth. They’re five points behind Liverpool who, while they’ve won their past two, have faltered numerous times this season when they looked like they were on track. Liverpool play Chelsea, Manchester United, Brentford and Aston Villa after they play Palace this weekend. Brighton can easily close a five-point gap if the Reds falter again. Can you imagine the Seagulls in the Champions League?
Bournemouth: A tiny squad, but they’ve just found a way to get things done. They lost three of their starting four back line and their starting goalkeeper in the summer. Then they had their best player, Antoine Semenyo, pilfered by Manchester City in the January transfer window when they triggered an automatic release clause. They just keep finding ways to get points.
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Nottingham Forest: Like Spurs and Chelsea, hired a new manager, saw it was the wrong choice and fired them. Chelsea and Spurs will be hoping for similar results to Vitor Pereira as two wins and three draws in their past five has them on the cusp of safety for next season.
Stock down
Arsenal: As noted above, two losses in a row isn’t the end of the world, but how is it going to affect their psyche in the last five games?
Spurs: Yeah, it’s not good.
Newcastle: Is this the end of the road for manager Eddie Howe? While the Saudi Sports Investment group looks to have lost interest in LIV Golf and may be pulling the plug there, are they going to feel the same about their EPL venture? They’re in 14th place and have lost three in a row.
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Arsenal-Man City title tilt headlines a Premier League slate packed with high-stakes drama](https://torontosun.com/sports/soccer/arsenal-man-city-title-tilt-premier-league-drama)
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Crisis Club
Chelsea: Losing five in a row and losing a shot at the Champions League funds that are needed to balance the books just isn’t great math.
This weekend’s EPL schedule
Saturday: Fulham vs Aston Villa; Liverpool vs Crystal Palace; West Ham vs Everton; Wolves vs Tottenham; Arsenal vs Newcastle.
Monday: Manchester United vs Brentford.
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