adminLONDON. — In ordinary circumstances, Manchester City would have long since relinquished their English Premier League football crown to Liverpool.
Yet tomorrow night, days before the summer solstice, Pep Guardiola’s side will step out at the Etihad Stadium hoping to delay Liverpool’s inevitable coronation a while longer.
Three months after the coronavirus pandemic shut down Britain and left Liverpool agonisingly close to sealing the title, action resumes as City host Arsenal and Aston Villa welcome Sheffield United — the first of the 92 English Premier League fixtures crammed into the next five weeks.
It will be a poignant evening, with both games played inside empty stadiums and marked before kickoff by a minute’s silence for the more than 40 000 people to die of the virus in the UK at the time this article was published.
Both managers suffered personally during the tragic weeks that put soccer matches into perspective. Guardiola’s mother died from Covid-19 while Mikel Arteta, who left his post as Guardiola’s assistant in December to manage Arsenal, caught the virus in March but recovered.
Once the whistle blows, however, the competitive juices will kick in and their focus will be only on the next 90 minutes.
In many ways, tomorrow’s clash is more crucial to Arsenal.
While City are 25 points adrift of runaway leaders Liverpool, who need two wins to secure their first title since 1990. — AFP.
Online Reporter