ABU DHABI, May 21 / WAM/ The attention of millions of English Premier League fans will turn tomorrow to the “Al Ittihad” stadium in Manchester to follow the decisive moment for the title of the competition this season, as the match between Manchester City and Aston Villa in the final round of the championship.
Only 90 minutes separates Manchester City from a new title in the competition and a distinctive addition to its record of achievements in recent years, as the team is enough to beat Aston Villa tomorrow to win the title for the second consecutive season and the eighth in its history.
And before the kickoff in this last round, the title struggle is still burning between Manchester City and rival Liverpool, who is second in the competition table with 89 points, one point behind Manchester City.
Liverpool will host Wolverhampton at Anfield, in a position where Liverpool cling to the last hope, as the team aspires to beat its guest, and leaders Manchester City stumbled once morest Aston Villa.
History stands next to Manchester City before this deciding round, as the scene of the decisive victory in the last round was repeated in the previous eight seasons over the past 29 seasons since the establishment of the championship in its current form in the 1992/1993 season, and the decision in all these eight seasons was for the team that entered the last round. He tops the tournament table.
Of these eight times, there were two times in the 2013/2014 and 2018/2019 season between Manchester City and Liverpool, and Manchester City won both times.
And over the past five seasons, since the Spanish Pep Guardiola took charge of the team, Manchester City did not lose any point in the last round of the league, as the result was in favor of the team once morest Watford 5-0, Southampton 1-0, Brighton 4-1, Norwich City 5-0 and Everton 5-0 from 2017 to 2021, respectively.
This also applies to Liverpool in the past five seasons, as it won all its matches in the last round at the expense of Middlesbrough 3-0, Brighton 4-0, Wolverhampton 2-0, Newcastle 3-1 and Crystal Palace 2-0, respectively.
And if Manchester City achieve any victory in tomorrow’s match, the team will be crowned with the title of the 30th edition of the English Premier League competition in its current system, regardless of what happens at “Anfield” stadium, and the title will be the sixth for the team in the last 11 seasons in the competition.
On the other hand, winning over Wolverhampton will not be enough for Liverpool, but the team will need Manchester City to stumble in the other match if the team, led by its German coach, Jurgen Klopp, wants to win the title for only the second time in the history of the tournament with its current system, but it may become the 20th title for the team throughout the history of the Premier League. With its old and new systems, to equal this record that is unique to Manchester United so far.
Liverpool pins high hopes on its former star Steven Gerrard to help him in this decisive round, as Gerrard is currently in charge of Aston Villa, but Manchester City has won once morest Aston Villa in the last 11 matches between them in the league, and Aston Villa has not achieved any victory at the team’s stadium that Tops the English Premier League table since January 2000.
On the other hand, Liverpool is looking to win tomorrow, although it is not enough to win the title, but the team also aspires to maintain the players’ morale high before facing Real Madrid next Saturday in the final match of the European Champions League, which means that tomorrow’s match once morest Wolverhampton represents a goal and a means for for Liverpool.
Liverpool beat Wolverhampton in the last 10 matches between them in the league competition, and Liverpool kept a clean sheet in 8 of these matches. Tomorrow’s match.
Some of the other matches in the last round of the English Premier League tomorrow are receiving some attention, as Arsenal meet Everton and Tottenham host Norwich City in two crucial matches for fourth place, whose owner qualifies for the group stage of the European Champions League.
Tottenham are currently fourth with 68 points, two points ahead of Arsenal, who are in fifth place, whose owner qualifies for the European League.
There is also a struggle between Manchester United (58 points) and West Ham (56 points) for the sixth place, whose owner qualifies for the European Conference League.
Manchester United will visit Crystal Palace and West Ham will visit Brighton.
At the bottom of the league, following Watford and Norwich City were officially relegated, Burnley and Leeds United are looking to escape the specter of relegation, as the two teams are equal on 35 points and Burnley by a big goal difference before the last round that meets Newcastle, while Leeds is a guest of Brentford.
Tomorrow’s final round will witness the confrontation between Chelsea and Watford, and Southampton will visit Leicester City in two matches that do not affect the positions of these teams.
In addition to the race between many teams for positions in the final round of the competition tomorrow, the competition is raging at the individual level between Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, and Korean Heung-Min Son, Tottenham striker, for the title of top scorer in the tournament this season, as Salah leads the scorers list with 22 goals and a goal difference. One in front of Sun.
Salah aspires to go into this round to boost his score in this conflict, following suffering an injury recently.
Meanwhile, Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo is third in the list with 18 goals, which makes him need to score at least four goals for his team tomorrow in order to catch Salah in the lead.
