Title, relegation and European spots in balance as Premier League heads for exciting finale

London: The title race is down to two teams. The relegation tussle still involves three. And, the contest for the remaining European qualification positions contains as many as five.

The Premier League season is down to its last two weeks and there’s still plenty at stake from top to bottom.

Meanwhile, the second-tier Championship’s regular season finishes on Saturday, with a second automatic promotion spot set to be secured.

TITLE

This time, Arsenal vs Manchester City for the Premier League title looks like going down to the wire.

City took advantage of a late-season collapse by the Gunners to win the league with three matches to spare in the 2022-23 campaign, but an improved Arsenal might last the course this time round.

Arsenal leads by a point with three games to go — against Bournemouth at home on Saturday, Manchester United away and Everton at home.

City has four games remaining — at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, away to Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur, and at home to West Ham United — and would capture an unprecedented fourth straight title by winning all of them.

The pressure is on the defending champion to do that because even just a draw could be fatal. Arsenal has a superior goal difference and, as it stands, would win on that tiebreaker if the teams are equal on points.

Away to Tottenham looks to be the toughest match for City, which has yet to win — or even score — in four league games at Tottenham’s new stadium that opened in 2019. Spurs fans will have mixed feelings about the May 14 game, because a win for their team could hand Arsenal, Tottenham’s fierce north London rival, the title.

A trip to Old Trafford is likely Arsenal’s hardest remaining fixture.

After all, Liverpool — until recently the other title contender — saw its season turned upside down after a loss at United in the FA Cup quarter-finals on March 17 was followed by a costly draw at Old Trafford in the league on April 7.

The Premier League is the only one of Europe’s top five leagues where the title race is still bubbling. Germany’s Bundesliga (champions Bayer Leverkusen), Italy’s Serie A (Inter Milan) and France’s Ligue 1 (Paris Saint-Germain) have been decided, while Real Madrid leads Barcelona by 11 points in Spain’s La Liga.

EUROPEAN PLACES

Arsenal, City and Liverpool are locked for Champions League qualification, with fourth-place Aston Villa likely to join them. Tottenham is isolated in fifth, the reward for which is Europa League qualification.