Manchester City face a fixture pile-up of four games in 11 days next month after the Premier League confirmed the rescheduled dates for two of their key matches in the race for the title.
Pep Guardiola's side will host Crystal Palace on Wednesday, 13 May and travel to Bournemouth six days later, with the FA Cup final against Chelsea taking place in between on Saturday, 16 May.
City have been left frustrated by the length of time it has taken for the Crystal Palace game to be confirmed and feel the principle of rescheduling games at the earliest moment has not been followed.
The Premier League knew about the need to rearrange that game on 4 February, when City beat Newcastle to book their place in the Carabao Cup final, but it has taken almost three months to come to this decision.
It is understood City had offered three different alternatives for the Palace fixture in the weeks beginning 20 and 27 April, as well as 4 May, but the Burnley game was rescheduled for the first option and Oliver Glasner’s side’s participation in the Conference League ruled out the other.
City had put forward the scenario of potentially facing Bournemouth on 12 May and Palace a week later, which would have allowed an extra day to recover for the Wembley showpiece and to play their final two league games of the season at home.
While Manchester City wanted to play the game against Crystal Palace on Tuesday. 19 May, this did not seem to take into account the Eagles' game against Brentford.
That game has to be played on Sunday, 17 May as the FA Cup final takes place the day before, so there was no realistic prospect that Palace would be told to play again 48 hours later when there were other options available.
It leaves City with an arduous three games in seven days, with a lot of travelling involved, during the most crucial part of the campaign when they are chasing a domestic treble.
City's remaining fixtures:
- 4 May: Everton (a)
- 9 May: Brentford (h)
- 13 May: Crystal Palace (h)
- 16 May: FA Cup final v Chelsea
- 19 May: Bournemouth (a)
- 24 May: Aston Villa (h)
