The final stages of the football season

 The final stages of the football season

We are now heading towards the final stages of the football season and there are pressing issues that need to be addressed. Relegation and promotion imponderables have yet to be figured out and there is a sense here that we may have been this way a thousand times without quite grasping the inner meaning and mechanics of the Premier League. Now though, in complete contrast to the last three seasons, three teams are battling it out for the Premier League winners trophy and, it has to be said, this is just enthralling.

Last night Manchester City, who seemed to have won everything in sight over the last couple of seasons, once again posted their ominous intentions. After their comprehensive 4-0 demolition of Brighton at the Amex Stadium, City reminded you of rich Victorian industrialists about to broker another immensely profitable deal in the City of London. Sometimes it just seems too easy and effortless and as a neutral, you wish Manchester City would just stumble briefly at the final hurdle, thoroughbreds who just run out of steam and then graciously concede defeat as runners up for a change.

But City now have vital games in hand over their closest contenders Liverpool and Arsenal. Arsenal now hold an important one point advantage over City which means very little in the bigger picture. This chase to the finishing post is so fascinating and intriguing that even Manchester City may have been taken by complete surprise. Psychologically, Liverpool were dealt a heavy blow to their title's hopes with a 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park but this may not be the end of the story. Liverpool go to West Ham tomorrow still clinging onto dear life and perhaps another resurgence could be within their capabilities. 

West Ham, for their part, have now resigned themselves to dull mediocrity in the safe harbour of the Premier League mid table. Their season of course has been littered with triumphant highs and demoralising lows where potential suddenly became extinct overnight. Their 5-2 capitulation to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park last Sunday, the feeble surrender to Fulham at the London Stadium and innumerable other collapses have turned a moderately successful season into one of lengthy inquests and worrying questions about their style of play.

For the top three though the final skirmishes have changed all the dynamics. Arsenal have now scored a record breaking number of goals throughout the course of the season and another five goal victory over Chelsea earlier on this week at the Emirates Stadium merely confirmed what we already knew. Arsenal released their attacking handbrake from the opening day of this season and have never looked back. Their football, under Mikel Arteta has been so stunningly ravishing that there were times when it looked as if Arsenal were just playing with their opponents like children with their first set of toys. Then you wondered whether Arsenal were just going through the motions, just assuming that all they had to do was turn up on match day and expecting to win quite comfortably.

So when Arsenal temporarily lost their focus in the shock 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates, some of us detected cracks, blemishes, tiny scar wounds, a side exposed and ever so slightly vulnerable. This though was just a fleeting setback and even Manchester United at Sir Alex Ferguson's best had a brittle chin and there were creaking defensive noises. Even Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley's breath taking Liverpool sides were caught out from time to time. And now Manchester City can see history in their headlights and may find them too dazzling on the final day of the season. The plot thickens.

As usual Manchester City just gave the impression of swaggering strollers along the seaside promenade and Brighton were just appropriate opponents. In one staggering period of utter dominance, City just kept the ball in their possession as if it were solely their divine right to do so. There were roughly ten minutes left of the game and City were challenging Brighton to retrieve the ball, taunting Brighton, passing the ball amongst themselves and refusing to give the Seagulls even the remotest sniff of the ball. City were four up and just managing the game admirably as if it were simply a training ground routine.

On Sunday Arsenal travel to their noisy North London neighbours for what could prove to be the most thrilling local derby of all time. Some of the Arsenal traditionalists still harbour fond memories of the Double season when Arsenal went to White Hart Lane in the final match of the season after the Gunners had just beaten Liverpool in the 1971 FA Cup Final. Ray Kennedy's winning goal for Arsenal handed them the old First Division trophy but the late and sadly missed Kennedy would, in years to come, feature prominently in a Liverpool side who were just unbeatable and seemingly invincible.  

Manchester City, for their part, have vital games in hand over Arsenal. For City this is familiar territory, something they've become accustomed to after wrapping up the Treble last season. Arsenal of course were left panting and puffing in City's wake after playing some of the sweetest football their fans had hitherto seen since the victorious days of Arsene Wenger. 

Football has a funny habit of catching you unawares when least expected. For most of last season Arsenal were racing away with the Premier League title until a light blue juggernaut came roaring past them at the rate of knots and just overtook them as if they weren't there. Manchester City would win the Premier League as if it was something that was preordained to happen. Then City swotted aside Manchester United in the FA Cup Final after the quickest goal to be scored from the start and then AC Milan were handsomely disposed of in the Champions League Final.

So it's either Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp for the ultimate honour of Premier League winners, indisputably top of the League. It seems reasonable to assume that Klopp's Liverpool will have to settle for a third place finish and Klopp will wave farewell to Liverpool with a Champions League place definitely ensured whatever happens. Arteta will be bitterly disappointed if Arsenal miss out again but you have a hunch that this time the streets of North London will be ablaze with red and white scarves twirling jubilantly at their first Premier League title for 20 years. City's Guardiola though must be hoping that a record fourth consecutive Premier League has to be theirs for the taking. We will see. May the best team win.