Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne in action with Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin during English Premier League game at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, May 8, 2016.
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Neither side could find another goal as the game ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw, which leaves Arsenal three points ahead of City in third, with the Citizens now only two points ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United, who have a game in hand.
In a season where 5000-1 odds have won Leicester the league title over Mauricio Pochettino led Spurs, this three-way battle for the remaining two Champions League spots is an intriguing watch for the neutrals. You saw how languished we were against Norwich City without Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial; to me, it looked like a bunch of players who conceded the top four was out of reach already even if we beat Norwich.
However, Alexis Sanchez fired in another leveller when collecting a brilliant return pass from Giroud to virtually guarantee Arsenal a place in next season’s Champions League.
“I don’t want the season to end – I’m just getting started, I feel fresh, hopefully I can get more minutes next week and then we’ll see what happens”. “We dealt well with what was thrown at us and Manchester City looked like they were doing absolutely everything to win the game”.
Regarding how hard failure to make the Champions League would hit City in the pocket, Sheffield Hallam University’s football finance expert Rob Wilson told Press Association Sport it would hurt City in more way than one.
Imagine hiring, arguably, the best football coach on the planet and instead of handing him a Champions League berth as a welcome gift, you saddle him with an unwanted distraction of a tournament that is the Europa League.
Steven Davis scored both goals for Southampton, which is in sixth place and is in position to qualify for next season’s Europa League.
Should Van Gaal’s team come away victorious, United will go into the final game of the season one point ahead of City.
As far as how Pellegrini will be remembered, I asked some City fans about this on a radio phone-in recently and they were very complimentary.
“But they should be able to ride out the storm and I think a saving grace for them in some ways is the fact that Guardiola is coming in”.
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Arsenal, though, came roaring back again and Sanchez buried their equalizer after a neat one-two with Giroud. “We started really well but physically we dropped off after an hour because of the game against Real”.
