Pep Guardiola’s Man City survived a right regular major scare against West Ham to send the Premier League title race down to the wire into the final weekend.
City valiantly fought back from two goals down in the second half to earn a title-saving 2-2 draw in the London Stadium that takes the Sky BLues 4 points clear above Liverpool at the top of the table although the Reds have a game in hand with Southampton.
Guardiola’s squad started the game on a cautious footing – as they were without their defensive anchor Ruben Dias – and failed to carve out clear-cut chances as West Ham struck first.
Jared Bowen collected a pass from Pablo Fornals and rounded up Ederson to put West Ham in front. The forward then added a second before halftime when Michail Antonio chested down a ball before flicking it over City’s defense for Bowen to find the bottom corner.
Man City stirred to life in the second half with Jack Grealish scoring his first away goal for the Cityzens to cut the deficit to half in the 49th minute. However the Sky Blues then proceeded to waste multiple chances in their frantic search for the equalizer.
City’s 31 shots at goal were finally rewarded when Vladimir Coufal scored an own goal to level things up but squandered a chance to secure all three points when they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Jesus, with Riyad Mahrez’s resulting spot-kick saved by Fabianski as the score remained 2-2 till the final whistle.
Nonetheless City are still masters of their own destiny and will face Aston Villa in the final game of the season which they now have to win to ensure a fourth premier league title in 5 years.
Liverpool, fresh off their FA Cup win, have to beat Southampton Tuesday to close the gap to City to just a single point.
However the Reds will be without the services of Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah.