How form book looks as title rivals Man City and Arsenal meet in crunch showdown

Manchester City and Arsenal go into their potential Premier League title decider both on long unbeaten runs but with momentum perhaps swinging towards City.

Here, Football Mad assesses both sides’ recent form.

Manchester City

City are unbeaten in 16 games in all competitions since losing to Tottenham in early February, with 13 wins and three draws in that run.

The only team to take a point off them in the league in that time are, remarkably, relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, who claimed a 1-1 draw in February courtesy of Chris Wood’s late equaliser. City have won their other eight league games in that run, earning 25 points out of the last 27 available.

Such form in the run-in is nothing new to City, and the similarity to last season is looking uncanny. Then they lost to Spurs in February and were unbeaten thereafter, with nine wins and three draws seeing them to the title a point ahead of Liverpool.

That was a near repeat of the 2018-19 season, when they won their final 14 games to again beat Liverpool by a point – the Reds themselves won their last nine and were unbeaten in 17 after their ultimately crucial January defeat to City.

The 2017-18 title was won in a procession by Pep Guardiola’s men but City still won five and drew one of their last six games to finish with a record 100 points.

Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final win keeps them in the hunt for a treble, with a derby final against Manchester United to come and a Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.

Arsenal

Arsenal go into the game on a run of three dramatic draws in succession, and with questions being asked over their nerve in the run-in.

They led 2-0 early on against both Liverpool and West Ham, only to be pegged back and draw 2-2. Against Southampton, by contrast, they trailed 2-0 and 3-1 before scoring twice in the last three minutes to salvage a 3-3 draw.

They had won seven straight league games previously, including three in a row by three-goal margins, giving them 24 points from a possible 30.

That run was interrupted by a Europa League exit on penalties to Sporting Lisbon, drawing both legs of the last-16 tie, but they remain unbeaten in 10 league games – one more than City, and scoring three goals or more in seven of those games – and 12 in all competitions.

Key men

City striker Erling Haaland’s run of 15 goals in seven games ended in the FA Cup semi-final but he has seven goals and two assists in City’s nine-game unbeaten league run, including doubles against Southampton and Leicester.

Kevin De Bruyne has contributed two goals and four assists in those league games and Jack Grealish three of each, while Riyad Mahrez is coming off a Wembley hat-trick.

Gabriel Martinelli has eight goals in Arsenal’s last 10 league games, as well as three assists.

Martin Odegaard has scored in back-to-back games while over the 10-game unbeaten league run, Bukayo Saka has five goals and three assists and Leandro Trossard has set up seven goals, including all three in the win over Fulham.