Manchester City took pole position in the Premier League title race after their narrow victory away at Tottenham on Tuesday night.
Erling Haaland‘s brace made all the difference for Pep Guardiola‘s side, who go into the final game of the season with a two-point lead over Arsenal.
A victory over West Ham will seal their fourth consecutive title, though Arsenal will still have hope they can end two-decades of hurt when they face Everton.
Tuesday’s result also meant that Tottenham are out of the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Mail Sport’s Jack Gaughan was in attendance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to give some of the talking points from the match.
Erling Haaland scored a brace to give Man City the edge in the Premier League title race
Pep confirms he’s staying on
Pep Guardiola has confirmed for the first time that he will remain as Manchester City boss next season.
The City manager will head into a ninth year in charge and City supporters will have feared the Spaniard walking away were the club to make history by lifting four titles in a row.
‘I couldn’t be in a better place in terms of my chairman, CEO, sporting director,’ Guardiola said. ‘The people above me, I’ve never had this support in my life. That’s why I’m still at City, eight years, and it’ll be another one, nine.’
Those words will be music to the ears of City fans.
Pep Guardiola confirmed he will remain as Man City boss next season before their victory
Inner turmoil for Spurs fans
There were seemingly hundreds of empty seats amid inner turmoil for Spurs fans.
Despite Ange Postecoglou insisting that anybody wishing defeat needed ‘counselling’, Spurs fans outside were saying they hoped for an away win.
That all changed inside, as Spurs created a decent early atmosphere. But when Haaland scored their fans did start a chorus of ‘Are you watching Arsenal?’
Tottenham fans chanted ‘are you watching Arsenal’ after Erling Haaland’s opening goal
Sarr was everywhere
Spurs went with split strikers to counter City, so Pape Sarr had to cover lots of ground in the middle.
As his touch map shows, he was everywhere, dropping back into midfield and even further as they tried to clog the central areas. attempted to clog up the central area of the park.
City CAN face Girona
It emerged on Tuesday that City should be able to face Girona in next season’s Champions League.
Girona, a City Football Group sister club, can take part in the competition if CFG — who own a 47 per cent stake — place shares in a ‘blind trust’ controlled by a third party.
The crux of whether they can compete against each other lies with proving there is no executive control or information sharing. It seems it shouldn’t be an issue.
Girona, a City Football Group club, could face Man City in next season’s Champions League
Arsenal fans’ prank backfires
We’ve seen it plenty of times over the years on the eve of the biggest matches — and here was no different after a small band of Arsenal fans attempted to ruffle City feathers before this trip to Spurs.
A few of them travelled out to where they thought City were staying, setting off fireworks at 2am to disrupt their sleep. The only problem was that City didn’t travel down to London until the morning.
Arsenal fans set off fireworks outside what they thought was Manchester City’s hotel
Italian interest in Spurs defender
Spurs are willing to sell Emerson Royal this summer but value the wing back at around £25million.
AC Milan and Juventus are among the clubs showing early interest in the Brazilian but their valuations are expected to fall short of that figure.
Emerson arrived at Tottenham from Barcelona at the end of 2021 summer window in a deal worth £25.8m.
Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr made an approach in January but failed to meet Tottenham’s valuation while Postecoglou needed him to fill in at centre back during a defensive injury crisis.
