Arsenal on the verge of long-awaited Premier League success as Man City continue to falter | OneFootball

Premier League pacesetters Arsenal are now one step away from finally breaking their two-decade drought in England’s top flight after a favourable turn of events on Saturday.

Mikel Arteta’s side left it late to beat European hopefuls Everton at the Emirates Stadium, with goals from Viktor Gyokeres and Max Dowman beyond the 88th minute inspiring them to a precious 2-0 win.

Dowman’s match-winning exploits after coming off the bench in the 74th minute earned the teenage prodigy broad plaudits, with Arteta joining the chorus of praise after the game (via the Evening Standard).

At 16 years and 37 days, Dowman has become the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history, overtaking James Vaughan, as Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the table to nine points.

Despite boasting 72 percent possession and generating an impressive 2.04 xG, Manchester City fell to a frustrating 1-1 draw at relegation-fighting West Ham United on Saturday night.

Bernardo Silva’s opener was in vain, as Konstantinos Mavropanos drew Nuno Espirito Santo’s side level before half-time, with the Cityzens squandering a catalogue of chances in the second half.

Held to a second consecutive league draw, Pep Guardiola’s hopes of beating his former protege to the league title now feel like wishful thinking, even though the ten-time champions still have a game in hand.

Everything now depends on Arsenal.

Masters of their destiny

Dowman’s late show at the Emirates helped the Gunners not only extend their unbeaten run against Everton to seven matches but also stretch their lead at the summit to an unassailable nine points.

At least, that’s how it appears on paper, as Arsenal now hold a commanding advantage with only a handful of matches left to play and their fate firmly in their own hands.

Except for a mouth-watering trip to the Etihad Stadium to face Man City on April 19, each of Arsenal’s six remaining league fixtures pits them against the sides currently sitting ninth or lower in the Premier League standings.

Given the circumstances, it would take something almost unheard of for them to miss out on their first league title since the iconic 2003/04 season under Arsene Wenger.

However, Arteta’s men have often carried the tag of ‘serial bottlers’, so it would be naive to expect the Cityzens to stop pushing until the very end, even if their chances of reclaiming the Premier League crown appear all but dead in the water.

Herculean task

Not only do Man City have to win virtually every game between now and the end of the season, but they also need Arsenal to slip up repeatedly – a scenario that feels increasingly unlikely given their current form.

And while Marc Guehi insists that Guardiola’s charges ‘believe they can turn around‘ their Champions League knockout tie against Real Madrid, their hopes of leapfrogging the Londoners now rest on a near-impossible combination.

Saturday’s draw in London may have put the final nail in the coffin of City’s title ambitions, only a few days after Los Merengues humbled them 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

They could try to get their revenge on Arsenal in the League Cup final later this month, but the race for a new Premier League champion is all but settled, regardless of Guardiola’s post-match defiance.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a sequence of results that would catapult Man City past Arsenal down the final stretch, even though the Spanish manager refused to admit defeat after Saturday’s setback.

Unfortunately for the Etihad faithful, Guehi’s optimism ahead of Madrid’s visit to England amounts to little more than a pipe dream, with City staring down the barrel of a disappointing season that could mark Guardiola’s final campaign in Manchester.