Two title races, one month – what’s really happening in England and Scotland right now | OneFootball

March is when football title races stop being a talking point and start being a real test of nerve. If you have been keeping up with the title race in Scotland and England, you will already know that both leagues are delivering the kind of drama that makes this the best time of the football season to be a fan.

Arsenal – seven points clear, eight games left

As things stand, Arsenal lead Manchester City by seven points in the Premier League table with eight games remaining. That gap sounds comfortable, but City still have a game in hand, and the two sides meet at the Etihad Stadium on 19 April in what could be the defining fixture of the season.

Arsenal have been the most consistent side in England this season. Their defensive record is outstanding, and Bukayo Saka’s goal at Brighton on his 300th club appearance kept the Gunners on track despite a performance that was far from their best. Arsenal managed just 0.47 expected goals that evening, their lowest of the season, and still won. That is what title-winning sides do.

City, meanwhile, dropped two points at home to a Nottingham Forest side fighting relegation. They led twice and could not hold on. Pep Guardiola insisted the race is not over afterwards, and mathematically, he is correct. But Arsenal’s run of fixtures is favourable, with only three away games remaining and the majority of them against sides in the bottom half.

If the Gunners stay focused and do not repeat the late-season stumbles of recent years, this could finally be their moment. Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2003-04, more than two decades of near misses and disappointments, so the hunger is real.

The Scottish Premiership is producing something more special

While England’s title race is two-horse, Scotland has four genuine contenders still in the mix and the story at the top is one of the most remarkable in British football this season.

Hearts, managed by Derek McInnes, sit five points clear of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table with nine games to go. Rangers are a further point behind in third, and Motherwell sit fourth

Hearts have led the table for five months. They have beaten both Old Firm clubs home and away this season, and their goalkeeper has recorded 16 clean sheets – more than any other goalkeeper in Scotland or Europe’s top five leagues.

The last time a club outside Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish top-flight title was 1984-85, when Sir Alex Ferguson led Aberdeen to the championship. That is 41 years of unbroken Old Firm dominance. The Jam Tarts winning this league would not just be a great story, but it would be a historic shift in Scottish football.

Over one million viewers tuned in to watch Rangers draw 2-2 with Celtic at Ibrox on 1 March, the highest audience for a Scottish league fixture in nearly two seasons. The interest is enormous and growing.