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The title contenders have all played each other twice now this season and, for anyone not obsessed with tactics who sat through the dull 0-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, that might be a good thing.
There are just nine league matches remaining for Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City, who have run-ins of varying difficulty with one thing in common — they all have to play Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
All three of those opponents, who for the purposes of this article we are calling ‘the kingmakers’, have beaten at least one of the title contenders already this season.
It also sits in between Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final matches against Bayern Munich.
Both teams are at home in the previous midweek for the first legs, although Arsenal play on the Tuesday and Villa not until the Thursday, giving them a disadvantage in terms of preparation for the trip to London.
Last three league results vs City
Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City, December 2023
Manchester City 3-1 Aston Villa, February 2023
Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester City, September 2022
Against Arsenal
The game on April 14 marks Emery’s first return to the Emirates for a match with fans in the stadium since he was sacked as Arsenal manager in November 2019.
The last time the clubs met at Villa Park was in the infancy of Emery’s reign and although Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners, Villa caused them a few problems.
Eighteen months on, they could prove very problematic to Liverpool’s title dreams.
Last three league results vs Liverpool
Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa, September 2023
Liverpool 1-1 Aston Villa, May 2023
Aston Villa 1-3 Liverpool, December 2022
Tottenham Hotspur (Fifth)
Fixtures against the top three: Arsenal (h), Sunday April 28, 2pm; Liverpool (a), Saturday May 4, 3pm*; Manchester City (h), TBC (* – matches in May are subject to change for live TV coverage)
Ange Postecoglou’s attitude towards playing the title contenders can best be summed up from an exchange with a reporter in a press conference before Tottenham visited City in December.
Spurs were ravaged by injuries and suspension at this point, missing both first-choice centre-backs (full-backs Emerson Royal and Ben Davies played those positions), James Maddison, Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and more.
But they themselves are, via the creativity and quality of Son, Kulusevski, Brennan Johnson, Maddison and Timo Werner, capable of beating any team.
They could win all three of these games, they could lose all three, but pretty much every minute will be worth watching.
Last three league results vs City
Manchester City 3-3 Tottenham, December 2023
Tottenham 1-0 Manchester City, February 2023
Manchester City 4-2 Tottenham, January 2023
Wolverhampton Wanderers (10th)
Fixtures against the top three: Arsenal (h), Saturday April 20, 7.30pm, Manchester City (a), Saturday May 4, 3pm*, Liverpool (a), Sunday May 19, 4pm (* – matches in May are subject to change for live TV coverage)
And then you have Wolves, a team tipped for relegation at the start of the season by many — rightly so too after they shed more than £100million of talent in a summer firesale to save their accounts and lost their Europa League-winning manager just days before the start of the campaign to be replaced by the bloke who had stepped up from an assistant role for the first time the previous September and kept promoted Bournemouth up.
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After an understandably iffy start as Gary O’Neil got to grips with the squad he’d inherited from Julen Lopetegui, Wolves have impressively navigated their way to mid-table safety with the prospect of a possible late run at a surprise European place.
While they may lack the quality in certain areas that Spurs and Villa bring to the table, they certainly have the capability to bloody the noses of any or all of the title-chasers, albeit they will need their firepower to have returned by then.
Pedro Neto, Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha are a forward line to be feared but all three have been missing through injury lately and Wolves’ results have suffered, notably in the FA Cup where they were dumped out at home by Championship side Coventry City in the quarter-finals.
Cunha should be back this week but Hwang and Neto are a while away yet, although in theory all three should be around for the final day of the season… when Wolves go to Anfield.
Against Arsenal
Wolves’ record against Arsenal is pretty weak of late, losing five in a row since doing the double over them in the pandemic season of 2020-21.
In December, Arsenal raced into an early 2-0 lead inside 13 minutes and threatened a thrashing.
All three things happened and, while it is asking a lot for a repeat at the Etihad a month from now, Wolves and O’Neil have the tools to hurt City.
Last three league results vs City
Wolves 2-1 Manchester City, September 2023
Manchester City 3-0 Wolves, January 2023
Wolves 0-3 Manchester City, September 2022
Against Liverpool
Remarkably, Wolves face Liverpool at Anfield on the final day of the league season for the third time in six years.
Liverpool have been battling for the title on the previous two occasions and, despite beating Wolves both times, got pipped by City.
In 2018-19, Klopp’s team beat Nuno’s Wolves fairly comfortably 2-0, both goals scored by Sadio Mane in the 17th and 81st minutes, but with City winning 4-1 in Brighton at the same time it wasn’t the dramatic afternoon Liverpool hoped for.
Then, at the end of 2021-22, Wolves again arrived on Merseyside in the role of party-poopers and this time they had some fun, opening the scoring through Neto in the third minute.
In between there was a gamut of emotions at Anfield, with City finding themselves 2-0 down to Aston Villa and Liverpool increasingly desperate to score and keep their title and indeed quadruple hopes alive.
Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson gave Liverpool the win, but City’s dramatic comeback again denied them.
(Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
There has been plenty of drama between Wolves and Liverpool in recent seasons, not least last year’s FA Cup third-round tie at Molineux, in which Wolves were denied a winner because there was no VAR camera in position to spot that Matheus Nunes was onside.
With it being Klopp’s final league game as Liverpool manager, his last match in English football (they may have the Europa League final three days later) and his Anfield swansong, expect an unfathomable amount of emotion.
And if the title is in play, expect the travelling Wolves fans to invent goals from elsewhere (like they did when pretending Villa had scored against City two years ago).
Last three league results vs Liverpool
Wolves 1-3 Liverpool, September 2023
Liverpool 2-0 Wolves, March 2023
Wolves 3-0 Liverpool, February 2023
GO DEEPER
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(Top photos: Getty Images)
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