Much of the interest in matchday 22 of the Premier League will be focused on Saturday afternoon when championship leader Manchester City and second-placed Chelsea meet.
Ten points separate Pep Guardiola’s team from the current European champion in the standings, so if the ‘Citizens’, who have won eleven consecutive victories in the championship, beat the ‘Blues’, the championship could be sentenced. .. if Liverpool does not remedy it either, third eleven points behind City, although with one less game.
The ‘Reds’, who cannot count on their stars Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, both in the African Cup, will host Brentford (13th) on Sunday.
Sunday will also see the fight for 4th place, which gives access to play the next Champions League, with the North London derby between Arsenal (4th with 35 points) and Tottenham (6th with 33 points and two games less) .
After losing against City on New Year’s Day, Arsenal must maintain their ascendancy against ‘Spurs’ who were eliminated this week by Chelsea from the League Cup, but who have 5 wins and 3 draws in the Premier League since the arrival on the bench of the Italian Antonio Conte.
West Ham (4th with 37 points) receives Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds (16th) who urgently need to score points to get away from the relegation zone.
Precisely, in the fight for permanence, several duels between direct rivals will be played: Newcastle (19th) will receive Watford (17th) and bottom team Norwich will host Everton (15th).
Program of the 22nd round of the English football championship, and classification table:
– Friday:
(20h00 GMT) Brighton – Crystal Palace
– Saturday:
(12h30 GMT) Manchester City – Chelsea
(15h00 GMT) Burnley – Leicester
Wolverhampton – Southampton
Norwich City – Everton
Newcastle – Watford
(17h30 GMT) Aston Villa – Manchester United
– Sunday:
(14h00 GMT) Liverpool – Brentford
West Ham – Leeds
(16h30 GMT) Tottenham – Arsenal
Classification: Pts JGEP GF GC Diff
1. Manchester City 53 21 17 2 2 53 13 40
2. Chelsea 43 21 12 7 2 45 16 29
3. Liverpool 42 20 12 6 2 52 18 34
4.West Ham 37 21 11 4 6 39 27 12
5. Arsenal 35 20 11 2 7 33 25 8
6. Tottenham 33 18 10 3 5 23 20 3
7. Manchester United 31 19 9 4 6 30 27 3
8. Wolverhampton 28 19 8 4 7 14 14 0
9. Brighton 27 19 6 9 4 20 20 0
10. Leicester 25 18 7 4 7 31 33 -2
11. Southampton 24 20 5 9 6 24 30 -6
12. Crystal Palace 23 20 5 8 7 29 30 -1
13. Brentford 23 20 6 5 9 24 30 -6
14. Aston Villa 22 19 7 1 11 25 30 -5
15. Everton 19 18 5 4 9 23 32 -9
16. Leeds 19 19 4 7 8 21 37 -16
17. Watford 13 18 4 1 13 22 36 -14
18. Burnley 11 17 1 8 8 16 27 -11
19. Newcastle 11 19 1 8 10 19 42 -23
20. Norwich City 10 20 2 4 14 8 44 -36
./bds/mcd
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