Man City ask Premier League leaders for help ahead of Arsenal’s title challenge

Manchester City will be looking to avoid a slew of matches in the final game of the season as manager Josep Guardiola and his team look to beat Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title.

Manchester City has asked Premier League leaders for help regarding the match pile-up.

City manager Josep Guardiola will play three games in seven days ahead of the final weekend of the season. However, this sparked a backlash from other clubs who slammed Treble-chasing City receiving special benefits from the Premier League’s fixture schedule.

City have booked their place in the FA Cup final, which will be played at Wembley on Saturday 16th May. As a result, the game against Bournemouth, originally scheduled for May 17th, has been postponed, and the home game against Crystal Palace has also been rescheduled.

Normal Premier League instructions are that the first game on the calendar should be prioritized and played first to protect the integrity of the fixture schedule.

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However, City are thought to have asked for the match to be “flipped” to give him an extra day to recover ahead of the FA Cup final.

Palace are scheduled to face Everton on Sunday 10th May, having played in the Europa Conference League last Thursday. This means Palace will only be able to play at the Etihad on Wednesday 13th May, giving City one less day to recover for their match at Wembley.

They are scheduled to face Bournemouth on Tuesday 19 May, as the Europa League final is the following day and UEFA does not like domestic matches to overlap with European dates. Although it could happen in exceptional circumstances, UEFA would not approve of the May 20 fixture, bearing in mind that Premier League teams are certain to take part.

Barring a late change of heart, City’s trip to Bournemouth is scheduled to kick off at 7.30pm on May 19, with Tottenham v Chelsea to be shown on TV that evening.

It means City face an exhausting schedule and a tough trip to Bournemouth in two games that will be key to winning this season’s Treble just three days after the FA Cup final.

It’s also an incredibly difficult situation for City’s fan base, given that they were unable to sell their FA Cup semi-final spot in full and have had a lot of frustration over costs.

The Premier League is yet to announce fixtures, but it is clear that they will have to take into account the wishes of the Palace and Bournemouth fan bases, with the latter scheduled to play Andoni Iraola’s final home game on the 19th.

Clubs are understood to have raised concerns about last-minute rescheduling, causing inconvenience to fans and breaking the tradition of Premier League directives on when games should be played.

Arsenal may also be satisfied with City facing a difficult away trip to Bournemouth on Tuesday, with both teams competing for the title.

The TV broadcast schedule has not yet been confirmed, but Tottenham’s important trip to Chelsea is yet to be scheduled, while Arsenal’s final home game against Burnley could be played on Monday, May 18th, so it is the subject of discussion.

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