Manchester City and Pep Guardiola will have to go on their longest ever unbeaten run in a single Premier League season should they wish to guarantee the Premier League title’s return to the Etihad this summer ahead of Arsenal.
The Cityzens closed the gap to the Gunners as Mikel Arteta’s side threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with West Ham, their second successive draw, and now sit just four points behind their north London title rivals with a game in hand.
They will have a chance to narrow that gap further when the two sides meet at the Etihad in just over a week’s time, with Manchester City having won the reverse fixture 3-1 in mid-February at the Emirates Stadium.
If Manchester City are to ensure that they lift the trophy come the end of the season, they will need to beat Arsenal in Manchester, as well as winning all of their remaining fixtures bar one (which they could afford to draw and still win the Premier League on goal difference).
A draw with Arsenal would leave them trailing by a point, and the title race out of their hands.
In doing so, they will have to go unbeaten for a further 8 games, which would leave them unbeaten since a 2-1 defeat to Brentford right before the World Cup break.
City’s current unbeaten run in the Premier League stands at 30 games, but in a single season that drops to “just” 22 games, set at the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign, something that will have to be beaten to ensure top spot.
Of course, it is possible that they will not need to do this, with Arsenal still facing tricky tests against Newcastle and Chelsea.
