MANCHESTER, England (AP) — The Premier League title race is not over yet.
Manchester City cut Arsenal’s lead at the top of the standings back to two points after beating Crystal Palace 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
With two rounds of the season to go it means Arsenal will have to wait another week at least to be confirmed champion.
Mikel Arteta’s team plays relegated Burnley on Monday and a victory would leave City needing to beat Bournemouth 24 hours later to take the title race into the final day of the season.
“We’ve seen a lot of things can happen on the final day,” City forward Phil Foden told Sky Sports. “I’ve experienced it many times when the game doesn’t go your way, so we just have to keep pushing and doing our part.”
City plays Chelsea in the FA Cup final before all that and Pep Guardiola appeared to have Saturday’s Wembley showdown in mind by making six changes to his team. But even without Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku in his starting lineup, City won comfortably.
Foden — making a rare start in recent months — provided assists for both of City’s first half goals.
His backheel created an opening for Antoine Semenyo to open the scoring after 32 minutes and he set up Omar Marmoush for City’s second eight minutes later.
Savinho added a third in the 84th.
The size of City’s win could yet be significant as it moved one ahead of Arsenal on goal difference.
Guardiola is targeting his seventh league title at City. He has never gone back-to-back seasons without winning a league title in his entire coaching career at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City.
“Unfortunately it’s not in our hands,” Guardiola said. “It’s not easy, but it’s important that we are there. This group of players are all extraordinary.”
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
