da 888： For weeks it’s been Chelsea and Manchester City at the top of the table, and Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal chasing behind. Those three chasers have put together wonderful runs since Christmas, and sit just behind the top two. It’s not impossible.
da doce： After a win at the Emirates over fellow chasers Liverpool, Arsenal have really knocked Liverpool out of the chase, seem to have sewn up a Champions League spot for next season, and crucially have moved up to second place in the table.
So there may still be a title challenge in Arsene Wenger’s men. And the French tactician has said that Arsenal will need to be ‘perfect’ in order to win the title this season.
They will have to be perfect if they are to topple Chelsea, as they not only have to make up seven points (rising to 10 if Chelsea win their game in hand against bottom club Leicester) and should they make up those points, they’ll need a seven-goal swing in goal difference too.
Arsenal have been almost perfect in the league this calendar year. They’ve lost only twice – away to Southampton on New Year’s Day, and away to Tottenham thanks to a very late Harry Kane goal.
Their two losses since the turn of the year added to the four before Christmas make six defeats this term, and Chelsea have only lost twice, and continuing that sort of form will not be good enough for Arsenal. They need to win all of their remaining games and hope that Chelsea lose a couple.
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But Chelsea have some hard fixtures of their own, starting next weekend in a West London derby against Queens Park Rangers, who would love nothing better than starting a drive away from the relegation spots with a win against Chelsea. The Blues then face a match at home to in-form Manchester United, a team who also nurse ambitions to fight for the title.
Then it’s the big one from Arsenal’s standpoint. Even if Chelsea do negotiate those two potentially tough games, the next game is Arsenal v Chelsea at the Emirates.
It’s tempting to regard this as D-Day for Wenger’s men, but in fact Arsenal need to be perfect – they need to win that one just as much as they need to win all their other games. After all, it’s not just Chelsea who they need to pip to the title, it’s also the two Manchester giants.
And if Chelsea don’t slip up there, they still face Liverpool at the Bridge. Almost a mirror image of last season’s showdown at Anfield, when Chelsea – and Steven Gerrard’s slip – cost Liverpool the title last season.
So the title race isn’t over just yet.
Chelsea have lots of potential banana skins to get over yet, and they should definitely not believe that the title is theirs just yet.
Chelsea have been in a ‘slump’ of late, too. They haven’t been playing well, although ominously they’ve been accumulating points. Their slump has consisted of drawing a few too many matches, and two of those draws cost them their Champions League run this season. But despite their seemingly dip in form, they still know they can gain points, and they still have lots of players to call upon to bail them out.
So Arsenal will need to be perfect, and win their remaining seven fixtures – and two of those are are against Chelsea and Manchester United.
The title isn’t quite in Chelsea’s hands, and a perfect run from Arsenal (or City, or United) would really put the pressure on them. But it’s not quite Arsenal’s to win just yet. It’s very much Chelsea’s to lose.
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