Mark Goldbridge insists Arsenal must beat Tottenham to have any chance of beating Man City for the Premier League title.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for this weekend’s north London derby, as the rivals prepare to do battle with everything on the line.
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The Gunners need three points on Sunday to keep the pressure on City, with the reigning champions just one point behind them in second place, but with a game still in hand, after their 4-0 destruction against Brighton.
Liverpool’s chances appear to be over after their disastrous Merseyside derby defeat to Everton – something Goldbridge not only agrees with but, as a devoted Manchester United fan, is delighted with.
And he hopes Arsenal can do the deed against Spurs on Sunday as Mikel Arteta’s side look to prevent Pep Guardiola’s ‘juggernaut’ side from being crowned champions again.
Liverpool are out of the title race. I think their fans would admit it and I think Jurgen Klopp knows it.
Read more from Mark Goldbridge
For Arsenal, it will be very difficult to track down Man City. When you look at City’s win ratio in the last five games of the season over the last ten years, it’s simply massive. They are not going to lose two games to let Liverpool come back.
This game for Arsenal will be what it was for Liverpool against Everton, it will be key to your title hopes if you lose.
Arsenal must win to have any chance of preventing Man City from winning the title again this season, which would make it six of the last seven seasons. This is the best team in the world. It’s a heavyweight.
But it’s a north London derby and it’s being played at Spurs, and as we saw in the Merseyside derby, form goes out the window.
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Spurs’ motivation will be twofold; Firstly, it’s a north London derby, and secondly, they have the top four playing for themselves.
Spurs have a good team and it’s incredibly difficult to follow with such huge ramifications for both teams, because if Arsenal win and Aston Villa also win this weekend, you could almost say that Spurs will only finish fifth, and If Arsenal lose, they’re out of the title race.
So we couldn’t have a better game to watch on Sunday with higher stakes.
I thought it was a very good game at the Emirates Stadium and I think Tottenham played better than Arsenal, which Arteta admitted afterwards. It has all the ingredients to be a crack game and I really can’t call it that.
I think after Everton beat Liverpool, I almost feel like Spurs could get something from Arsenal as well.
Klopp’s failed farewell to Liverpool
From Manchester United’s point of view, it’s fantastic: I don’t want Liverpool to win the championship!
But there’s this love for football that comes into play and, no matter what the United fans say, Jurgen Klopp is a nice guy, he’s passionate and I’m very surprised it ended like this.
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I didn’t think we’d be at the end of April saying they’re out of the FA Cup, won’t make the Europa League final and will now be out of the title race.
There might be a bit of pressure when you know the manager is leaving – that’s not necessarily a good thing.
We saw it with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United when he announced he would retire ten years earlier than he actually did. We started getting poor results when we thought we were getting a boost and camaraderie.
It’s surprising with Liverpool. You look at their results against Crystal Palace and Everton and wonder if it all had any effect on the players because they failed.
