And then there were just two. Just a few days ago the clash of titans had three teams slugging it out in the middle in the form of defending champions Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. And now, Liverpool are history, leaving just City and the Gunners to fight it out for the title. While that would not really make the job of forecasters easy and few would be brave enough to start predicting, the same job, when handed to the supercomputer Opta has actually led to some predictions being made.
The last few days have seen Liverpool draw their match against West Ham 2-2. According to Opta, their chances of winning the League now stand at a 0.1%, according to a report by 90min. Did anyone ever recover from such a fall? Not likely. And the spat between Mohammad Salah and Manager Jurgen Klopp on the sidelines of the last match shows that not all is well in the team.
Manager Mikel Arteta-led Arsenal, on the other hand, picked up all the 3 points on offer against a fighting Tottenham Hotspur although they were very fortunate to grab that win.
Manager Pep Guardiola-led Manchester City themselves did not really cover themselves in glory on Sunday after they emerged with a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest, which is placed 17th in the League and in danger of being relegated.
So, what does Opta make of all this excitement? The number-crunching exercise has some good news for Arsenal, but not much. Their chances of winning the League have improved to 32.5% from the earlier 26.6%. While the booster shot is definitely welcome, as far as fans are concerned, it may not be enough.
Manchester City, on the other hand, have done much better – kind of. They are still the favourites to win, but the percentage that was in their favour before the weekend has dropped to 71.7% to 67.4%.
Go figure!
