The Premier League has now confirmed the fixture changes for the penultimate weekend of the season, leaving title-chasing Manchester City facing a tricky period to negotiate
'Pep' Guardiola, head coach of Manchester City, looks dejected
Pep Guardiola is unlikely to be happy with the outcome(Image: James Gill/Getty Images)
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Premier League bosses have ignored Manchester City’s plea for help on their fixture backlog. City boss Pep Guardiola now faces the prospect of three crunch games in the space of seven days as they chase a domestic Treble.
City will face Crystal Palace on Wednesday May 13 at 8pm, then the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday May 16, and three days later they go to Bournemouth for a 7.30pm kick-off.
It means they will face two tough title clashes as they go head-to-head with Arsenal and then the FA Cup final against Chelsea. They will have just two clear days to prepare for Wembley and two clear days ahead of Bournemouth.
That could be a huge blow to their title chances, but the Premier League resisted City’s attempts to flip the Palace and Bournemouth games to allow them one extra day of recovery.
The Premier League directive says that the first outstanding game should be played first and it is understood several clubs insisted that the schedule should not be changed.
Sky have also picked Chelsea’s London derby with Tottenham on May 19 and that will kick-off at 8.15pm. Arsenal’s final home game of the season against Burnley will be played on Monday, May 18, which is unlikely to please fans.
But City have been left frustrated by the outcome and believe they have been hard done by because the Palace game has needed to be re-arranged since February and they have put forward several alternative dates.
The Premier League trophy lifted aloft after the Premier League match between Manchester City and Aston Villa at Etihad Stadium on May 22, 2022 in Manchester, United Kingdom.
The Premier League fixtures have been updated(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
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They also make the point that their game at Burnley was immediately re-arranged because of their FA Cup semi-final and there is a huge strain on players and they have concerns over player welfare.
It is also understood that had Liverpool beaten City in the FA Cup quarter-final, a proposal had already been put forward for Palace vs West Ham to be moved back to Sunday 19 instead of Mon 20, which the Prem would have accepted.
Sky’s other picks for the penultimate weekend are Aston Villa v Liverpool on May 17 at 12.30pm, Manchester United vs Nottingham Forest at the same time and also Newcastle vs West Ham on May 17 at 5.30pm.
The Premier League have insisted that they try to be fair to all sides to ensure the integrity of the league.
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