Man City set to win Premier League title as Arteta excuse for Arsenal failure revived | OneFootball

“You’re right,” Pep Guardiola said when asked if Arsenal’s controversial win over West Ham affected his thinking as he made six changes for the visit of Crystal Palace.

“The Premier League is so complicated to take it right now. It’s completely in the hands of Arsenal.”

City take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday before a trip to Bournemouth on Tuesday.

“The manager is here to take the risk,” he added. “We have to make decisions before and after, it depends on results, whether we judge it nicely or the opposite. We have to take it.

“People don’t believe me, but the players who sometimes don’t play, we trust them, otherwise they would not be here.”

Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku – all crucial to getting City back into the title race in the second half of the season – were rested, but their replacements repaid the faith shown in them by their manager.

The wait goes on for a Phil Foden goal – it’s 27 games and counting – but he had two assists by half-time and would have had a hat-trick of them, which would have doubled his tally this season, had Dean Henderson not pulled off a very smart save to deny Josko Gvardiol’s header after a delightful clipped cross from the playmaker just before the break.

He miscontrolled the ball for Omar Marmoush to double City’s lead but deserved that fortune after his absolute genius to break the deadlock at the Etihad.

It had been a painfully dull affair for the first half an hour, featuring your typical City dominance of possession but fairly inert side-to-side passing, with Foden’s frustration at not being given the ball at any given opportunity perhaps the most notable feature of the drudgery.

Matheus Nunes sped things up from right-back to find Foden in a pocket of space with his back to goal in front of the packed Palace defence. Having already noted Antoine Semenyo’s position behind him a few second before, Foden took another quick glance over his shoulder to check precisely where he was as the ball arrived at his feet, and after controlling with his right foot he back-heeled the ball with his left at the perfect pace to allow Semenyo to swivel and finish into the far corner. It may well be the assist of the season.

His and City’s confidence surged from there; there was little sign of an Everton-like implosion as they moved to within two points of Arsenal with two games left to play to decide the Premier League title.

Arsenal are very unlikely to drop points against Burnley and on the evidence of this Palace display they have little to fear from Oliver Glasner’s side on the final day of the Premier League season, just three days before the Eagles take on Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final.

At this stage Arsenal failing to win their first title in 23 years is almost too shocking to comprehend. They simply have to do it from here. But there’s a positive for City to cling to – Guardiola won’t be going anywhere as a result.

Had City won the title he may well have said enough’s enough, but he’s not about to leave having watched his trophy being won by Liverpool and now Arsenal. And on the evidence of the second half of this season in general, but specifically what his second-string side produced here under pressure he will have high hopes of leaving a league he’s shaped in his image with a seventh title when his contract comes to an end next summer.

We’ve heard all season that Arsenal have the strongest squad in England, if not Europe, as Thierry Henry insisted their advantage over all others made “winning something a must” this season as that particular excuse was removed from Mikel Arteta’s catalogue.

“Right now, I will say that nobody has a team as deep as Arsenal, in terms of the quality they can have,” the Gunners legend said, and was proved right in claiming they were “well-equipped to play in all competitions” as they’re now three games away from a historic Premier League, Champions League double.

We’re not so sure Arsenal have the squad advantage over City after Semenyo and Marc Guehi were signed in January.

Savinho scored late on to make it 3-0 following a brilliant run and delightful assist from substitute Rayan Cherki to very neatly demonstrate their absurd strength in depth, which has most probably come to the fore too late in the current campaign, but bodes very well for next season after what we can all assume will be another summer spent astutely improving the squad.

So Arsenal and Arteta would be well advised to celebrate a title win long and hard, because Guardiola’s not done yet and City are coming on strong.