13/05/2024
13/05/2024
MANCHESTER, England, May 13, (AP): It's going down to the wire.
Arsenal ensured the Premier League title race will go to the last day of the season after returning to the top of the standings with a 1-0 win at Manchester United.
Leandro Trossard's 20th-minute winner at Old Trafford means the Londoners will take defending champion Manchester City to the final round of games next Sunday.
"Today we wanted to knock (at) that door and open that box of dreams and live the last and final day of the season in front of our people with the opportunity to win the Premier League,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. "Everything is at stake. We had no margin for error since January.”
Anything other than a win for Arsenal against United could have seen City clinch the title with a victory at Tottenham on Tuesday. Arteta's team duly delivered and moved one point clear at the top.
Arsenal will host Everton in the final round when City is at home against West Ham after Tuesday's game at Spurs.
For now, Arsenal has done all it could to keep the pressure on Pep Guardiola's team - improving on last season when it suffered a late collapse to allow City to wrap up a third successive title with three games to spare.
While the title is still in City's hands, it will have to win its remaining two games to be certain of a record fourth-straight English league title.
Arsenal is aiming to be crowned champion for the first time since 2004 when Arsene Wenger's team went an entire league campaign without defeat to earn the nickname of the "Invincibles.”
The current class cannot match that feat, but with 27 wins and 89 goals, it has set two new club records in the Premier League era.
"That’s not progress, that’s history,” Arteta said. "That’s very difficult to do, especially in the league where we are playing now.”