‘Tension’ in Premier League title race as Man City and Arsenal learn rearranged fixtures

Manchester City will have to play four games in their final 12 days of the season after the Premier League confirmed the dates of their rearranged fixtures against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, with both set to be crucial in the title race with Arsenal.

City’s pursuit of a domestic Treble has also created a fixture headache for the run-in. After beating Arsenal to the Carabao Cup, Pep Guardiola’s side have once again progressed to the FA Cup final – setting up a clash with Chelsea on Saturday 16 May.

The Independent understands City’s preference was to swap the order of their postponed fixtures and play Bournemouth in the midweek before the FA Cup final and Crystal Palace after the Wembley showpiece, but the Premier League rejected the idea.

With Arsenal said to be monitoring the situation, City have instead been informed that they will host Crystal Palace on Wednesday 13 May and travel to Bournemouth on Tuesday 19 May, just three days after they play the FA Cup final against Chelsea.

City are frustrated to be playing three games in six days in the title run-in. They believe the Premier League’s principle for rescheduling matches has not been followed and feel their match against Palace could have been rearranged sooner.

Mikel Arteta’s team will have a lighter fixture schedule in the final two weeks of the season as they pursue a first Premier League title in 22 years, but their final home game of the campaign against Burnley has also been moved to a new date.

Manchester City have six games left this season, five in the Premier League, plus the FA Cup final. Pep Guardiola’s side currently have a game in hand on leaders Arsenal, due to their progress to both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals this season. The Crystal Palace match was moved from the Carabao Cup final weekend, with games against Burnley and Bournemouth and Burnley due to the FA Cup semi-finals and final, respectively.

The precedent in the Premier League has generally been for postponed games to be played in the order they were originally scheduled, where possible. That now means the Palace game will happen on Wednesday 13 May, at 8pm, and the Bournemouth game on Tuesday 19 May, at 7:30pm. The latter is set for that date due to the Europa League final taking place on Wednesday 20 May, and Uefa disallowing domestic fixtures to be staged when their showpiece fixtures take place.

Crystal Palace’s participation in the Europa Conference League complicated rearranging their trip to Manchester City, which was originally scheduled to be played on the weekend of the FA Cup quarter-finals. Palace have reached the semi-finals in Europe and Oliver Glasner’s side will play Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday 30 April and Thursday 7 May.

If the Eagles progress, the final would be after the Premier League season finishes, on Wednesday 27 May, but it meant City’s match against them had to be played either immediately after the Brentford match on Saturday 9 May or immediately after the FA Cup final.

The Premier League wanted the Crystal Palace match to be played before the Bournemouth game, as that was the order of their original calendar. But because the Eagles play their Premier League games following European commitments on a Sunday, that also ruled out the prospect of playing on a Tuesday.

Therefore, of the two free midweeks, Wednesday 13 May was the leading option, with the Bournemouth match rearranged for the following week, but not on the Wednesday due to the Europa League final. That will involve an English club in either Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest.

City had initially wanted the Crystal Palace match to be rescheduled for Wednesday 22 April, partly because it would have been easier to find a new date to face Burnley, who are not in Europe. The Premier League had known since 4 February – when City beat Newcastle to reach the Carabao Cup final – that they would need a new date to meet Oliver Glasner’s team.

It appears this was impossible because Crystal Palace were already scheduled to play West Ham on Monday 20 April, so could not play again that midweek. But City argue the Crystal Palace-West Ham match could have been moved to Sunday 19 April.

The situation nevertheless leaves City playing three games in seven days before the potentially crucial final weekend of the season, with the testing trip to Bournemouth coming a mere three days after the FA Cup final.

City were consequently in dialogue with the Premier League to explore alternative options and swapping the order of the Palace and Bournemouth games, but it is understood that led to pushback and some tension in discussions.

As Bournemouth aim for a European place for the first time in their history, Andoni Iraola’s side will now have nine days’ rest before facing City, as they now have a free weekend around the FA Cup final, against a mere three for their opponents. That would also be Iraola’s final home match in charge of Bournemouth, in what is set to be an emotional occasion.

City would have preferred to face Bournemouth on Tuesday 12 May, giving Guardiola’s side an extra day to prepare for the FA Cup final, and then Palace on Thursday 21 May, so it wouldn’t clash with the Europa League final.

Sources with knowledge of the discussions say it has been pointed out that this is just the fairness of how it falls and it is a complication that clubs competing on multiple fronts have to face. City have naturally pointed to the unnecessary pile-up, when alternatives are possible.

This led to pushback, principally over the idea that individual club situations should not be able to override precedent, given how other teams have faced similar in the past. Arsenal sources pointed to how the 2023-24 title race saw City face a rescheduled away trip at Tottenham Hotspur as their penultimate game, when it could have come earlier, despite an expected media circus around Spurs fans not wanting Arsenal to win the title.

While Arsenal have their Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid to negotiate over the next couple of weeks, Mikel Arteta’s side are left with a much lighter schedule over the final stretch due to their quarter-final exit from the FA Cup. While City would be left with four games in 12 days to finish the season, Arsenal have three in 14. That said, there is the potential of the Gunners having a Champions League final on the horizon on Saturday 30 May, should they get past Atletico.

The Gunners have also had their final home game of the season, against relegated Burnley, moved to Monday 18 May, at 8pm. It will be the first time this season that Arsenal have played a game on a Monday or Friday night, as all Premier League teams must play a minimum of one fixture on those nights during a Premier League campaign, according to broadcast regulations.

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