Manchester City’s progression to the FA Cup final has provided a little more clarity on their Premier League run-in, with Arsenal’s fixtures also largely now sorted.
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Manchester City’s FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton on Saturday ensured the need for another Premier League match to be rescheduled, as City will no longer be able to face Bournemouth on the weekend of May 16th-17th. The FA Cup final is on May 16th, after all.
With Crystal Palace also progressing to the Europa Conference League semi-finals, their date restrictions are also set in stone, and it’s now guaranteed that City will need to play midweek Premier League matches in the final two weeks of the domestic season.
The only unknown is exactly when they’ll play those two games, and in what order.
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Palace would likely prefer to play City around May 12th-13th, as they’ll hope to be playing in the Europa Conference League final on May 27th, and having City (A) on May 21st and Arsenal (H) on May 24th would not be the ideal build-up to such a final.
If that’s how it plays out, Bournemouth would then have to be moved to the 19th/21st midweek. Neither the Palace game nor the Bournemouth game will be on May 20th, as that’s the date of the Europa League final, to be kept clear of domestic fixtures.
The uncertainty should soon be cleared up by the Premier League, but we at least know roughly when City and Arsenal will have Premier League match slots, so let’s take a look at the remaining schedule.
Premier League title run-in fixtures
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As per the above, Arsenal will have played two extra games compared to City following the Fulham match, and City will then make up those games in hand before Arsenal are next in action.
After that, Arsenal will play first, then City, then Arsenal, then City, before the two teams play the final weekend together.
So up until the final weekend, Arsenal will always be playing first, with City playing catch-up the following week.
Whether that’s a positive or a negative remains to be seen, as the Gunners can put pressure on their rivals, but City will always know the goal difference and points gap they need to make up.
