What Arsenal Need to Win Premier League Title After Man City Thump Crystal Palace

Phil Foden was confident the title race will come down to the final day.

Mikel Arteta (left) and Pep Guardiola are still duking it out. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/James Gill-Danehouse/Getty Images

Manchester City playmaker Phil Foden warned Arsenal that “lots of things” can still happen in a title race which he believes will come down to the final day—even though the Gunners have the chance to wrap it up earlier.

“We have to keep pushing and keep them on their toes,” Foden told Sky Sports after starring in Wednesday’s 3–0 victory over Crystal Palace which moved City back to just a pair of points behind Arsenal with just two more league fixtures for each side to contest.

“Lots of things can happen on the final day, I’ve experienced it many times when the game doesn’t go your way. We have our part to play.”

Pep Guardiola was less forthright in his postmatch assertions. “Depends on them,” he shrugged to BBC’s Match of the Day. “If they win two games—nothing to do, nothing to talk. All we can be is in there just in case. The last two games are tough.”

Foden is right in his assertion that strange things can happen when a title race comes down to the last game of a season—a truism Manchester City fans know all too well from past experience. However, it may not even come to that.

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The Earliest Arsenal Can Win the 2025–26 Premier League TItle

Arsenal are in pole position to take home their first Premier League title in 22 years. | Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images

Manchester City have the weekend off from Premier League action, with the challenge of an FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday to contend with. Arsenal aren’t in action until Monday, when they host already-relegated Burnley.

In the event that the Gunners avoid an almighty misstep at the Emirates, which is by no means guaranteed, City have to take maximum points away to Bournemouth to avoid prematurely crowning Arsenal as champions. Should Guardiola’s side fail to prevail on the south coast, the title will be decided in front of 11,000 fans on the Dorset coast on Tuesday, May 19.

Bournemouth will have plenty of motivation outside anything to do with the title race. Not only is it Andoni Iraola’s final home game before he leaves the Cherries, but the club still have European ambitions to maintain. Four points adrift of Liverpool and Aston Villa inside the top five, Bournemouth could still qualify for the Champions League by finishing sixth if the Villans finish fifth and win their Europa League final against Freiburg.

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What If Man City Win Out in the Premier League?

Man City secured an important win. | Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images

Should Foden’s prediction of a final-day decider come to pass, the title race is still in Arsenal’s hands. In the event that City defeat Bournemouth and Aston Villa, the team they host at the Etihad on Sunday, May 24, the Gunners may also have to win out.

Arsenal travel to Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park on the last Sunday of the season knowing that a victory would guarantee them a first top-flight title in 22 years. Should the Gunners take four points from their final two games while City rack up a pair of wins, both sides would end the season locked on 83 points.

In that scenario, the next tiebreaker is goal difference before goals scored are considered. City have a slender edge in this regard, boasting +43 goal difference compared to Arsenal’s +42. However, as Arteta warned: “First we have to earn the right to win the game.”

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