Weekend recap: Liverpool leave it late, Arsenal come unstuck as Man City reach final

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City played over the weekend, with Chelsea in action tonight. Here, we’ll have a look at each. 

Arsenal

Arsenal fell to a disappointing 1-0 loss at Goodison Park against Everton on Sunday, with Phil Jagielka scoring the game’s only goal after 10 minutes. The Gunners missed a great chance to overtake Tottenham and move into third in the table. They remain fourth but will move down to fifth if Chelsea take any points tonight against West Ham.

Unai Emery’s side weren’t very impressive against the Toffees and deserved to lose the game. They really struggled for large parts and, in truth, could have been beaten by more than one goal. Arsenal are still in the hunt for the top four but this game showed that they’re certainly not guaranteed to qualify for the Champions League through the league. Their extremely poor away form continues, and with trips to Watford, Wolves, Burnley and Leicester still to come, they have a tough run-in on the road. The Europa League remains very important for Arsenal, and their attention now turns to Thursday’s huge game against Napoli at the Emirates.

Chelsea

Chelsea have a game at Stamford Bridge against rivals West Ham tonight. A win would see Maurizio Sarri’s side leapfrog both Arsenal and Tottenham and move into third in the Premier League table. It’s almost like they haven’t been as bad this season as people make out! Chelsea have been disappointing at times but people have gone well overboard when describing how bad they’ve been. At times, they’ve been dreadful but they’ve also played some good football this season. Finishing in the top four was their goal at the beginning of the season and they still have a great chance to do just that.

Sarri has started to take a little bit of pressure off himself. A win tonight against their London rivals would help his cause, especially if he plays fan-favourite Callum Hudson-Odoi. He definitely should start him and see what he can do. It may be a difficult game against the Irons, though. They always turn up and give everything they have when they play Chelsea or Tottenham and might be tricky customers tonight. The Blues have only won one of their last five games against West Ham but will be more than confident of improving that record tonight.

The games come thick and fast for Chelsea, who play Slavia Praha in Prague on Thursday night, before a trip to Anfield on Sunday.

Liverpool

Liverpool left it late to beat Southampton at St. Mary’s on Friday night. They fell behind after less than 10 minutes when Shane Long scored. Naby Keita equalised after 36 minutes, though. The Saints held out well for large parts of the game, but Mo Salah scored with 10 minutes to play to give the Reds the lead. It was a brilliant goal as the Egyptian ran from inside his own half before finishing into the bottom corner. Six minutes later, Jordan Henderson scored to ensure Liverpool travelled back north with all three points.

The win saw Liverpool return to the top of the Premier League table. They’re two points clear of Manchester City, who have a game in hand. The battle for the Premier League title continues and doesn’t look like ending anytime soon as both teams give everything they have. It could go to the wire.

The Reds host Porto in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday.

Manchester City

Manchester City weren’t in Premier League action this weekend, as they had an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. They beat Brighton 1-0, with Gabriel Jesus scoring the only goal early on. Brighton certainly weren’t disgraced by Pep Guardiola’s side, but, as many predicted, it’s City who march onto Wembley for the final. They’ll play Watford on May 18 after the Hornets came from 2-0 down to beat Wolves 3-2 in the other semi-final on Sunday. That was a cracking game, and Man City vs Watford should be a good final for us to look forward to.

Man City are still on for the quadruple, but that’s still an unrealistic expectation. They’re expected to win the FA Cup, but the league and Champions League will be very difficult for them to win. They can’t be written off because they really are that good and there is a chance they’ll do it, but there’s a very long way to go before they can start dreaming about that. They travel to Tottenham’s new stadium on Tuesday for a huge Champions League quarter-final.

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This article was written by PremPlace. You can see their website by clicking here.