EPL title race: Any room for unique play-off scenerio?
Manchester City took a giant step in winning their fourth Premier League title in five seasons last night by thrashing Wolves 5-1 at Molineux following a master class show from Captain Kevin de Bruyne.
This now means that Pep Guardiola’s side just require four points from their last two games to ensure they will finish above Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.
But the race certainly is not done and dusted especially as Guardiola has injuries to key defenders Ruben Dias, John Stones and Kyle Walker to contend with. Also, he saw two more players, Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho, limp off last night to injury and that could prove key in their final two matches. And it could mean their titanic battle with Liverpool might yet see them play each other in an unprecedented Premier League play-off scenario.
Liverpool need City to lose a game in their final outings if they are to claw back the deficit and if on the evening of May 22 the two teams are level on points, goal difference, goals scored and in the head-to-head results between them, then a play-off will be needed to see if the title heads to Anfield or the Etihad.
This has never before been needed before but the two sides who have already played out two extremely entertaining 2-2 draws this season are ever so closely matched and a play-off would be the only way to separate them. The match could possibly be played on May 25 but this would disrupt Klopp’s Champions League preparations for the following weekend. They face Real Madrid in Paris eyeing a second European triumph in four years but there is no other time to play what would be an incredible title-decider as there are international games the week after that.
City and Liverpool were involved in an epic title race in the 2018/19 season and Guardiola’s men edged out Liverpool by 1 point following a final day win at Brighton and Hove Albion.
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Their last 2 games see them face West Ham and Aston Villa while Liverpool face Southampton and Wolves. Though some say without necessarily underrating their opponents both the Reds and the Citizens should be able to pull victories in the two matches thus the possible thought of City losing a match is out of the question.