However Arsenal finishes the season, the title will be City’s if Pep Guardiola’s team beats both Tottenham away on Tuesday and West Ham at home in the final round on May 19.
“My players like to play with pressure. They are used to it,” said Guardiola, whose team has won five of the last six Premier Leagues. “The players enjoy this feeling.
“This season is the same — don’t think about anything other than the next game. Focus on winning the next game and then we will see what happens.”
Josko Gvardiol scored twice for City to enhance his status as an unlikely goal-getter for Guardiola, with the left back making it five in his last seven games. Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez also netted at Craven Cottage as City extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 33 matches.
No team in the 136-year history of English soccer has won the top division for four successive years. It’s the latest record in touching distance of Guardiola’s City, which has also reached the FA Cup final against Man United on May 25.
Burnley down
Two of the three teams which came up to the Premier League for this season are sure to be heading back down to the Championship after one year.
It’s not looking great for the third one, either.
Burnley needed to beat Tottenham to stand a chance of a second straight season in the league but lost 2-1 to join already-relegated Sheffield United in going down.
Luton lost at West Ham 3-1 to stand on the brink of being the third team relegated. It was given a reprieve, however, when fourth-from-last Nottingham Forest squandered a lead and lost at home to Chelsea 3-2.
Forest was three points above Luton and has a superior goal difference of 12. In the final round of games next weekend, Forest visits Burnley and Luton hosts Fulham — and there has to be a huge, and improbable, swing in goal difference for Luton to survive.
Last season, all three promoted teams staved off relegation for the first time since 2018.
Spurs retain hope
Tottenham kept alive its Champions League qualification hopes with the come-from behind win over Burnley, which was secured by Micky van de Ven’s 82nd minute goal.
Spurs’ first goal was also scored by a defender — right back Pedro Porro — to begin the fightback.
Spurs trimmed the gap to fourth-placed Aston Villa to four points, with both teams having two games left. Villa can secure fourth spot and the final automatic Champions League spot from the Premier League by beating Liverpool on Monday.
Forest is almost safe
Nottingham Forest was still not mathematically sure of avoiding relegation from the English Premier League after losing at home to Chelsea 3-2 on Saturday.
Forest is almost safe, though, as it will require a huge swing in goal difference to be overtaken by Luton in the final round of games on May 19.
Forest was three points above third-from-last Luton and had a superior goal difference of 12.
Chelsea boosted its ambitions of playing in a European competition next season by coming from behind thanks to goals by Raheem Sterling in the 80th minute and Nicolas Jackson in the 82nd.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team moved level on points with sixth-placed Newcastle and three points clear of eighth-placed Manchester United, which hosts title-chasing Arsenal on Sunday. After that, Man United, Newcastle and Chelsea will each have two games left. Man United hosts Newcastle in one of them.
Sixth and seventh place are likely to earn spots in the Europa League or Europa Conference League, respectively.
After Luton’s 3-1 loss at West Ham earlier Saturday, Forest knew a point would be good enough to retain its league status.
However, the hosts fell behind to a goal from Mykhailo Mudryk, who cut inside off a pass from Cole Palmer and slotted home a low finish in the eighth minute.
Willy Boly was left unmarked to head home the equalizer at a free kick in the 16th and Callum Hudson-Odoi — a former Chelsea player — curled Forest ahead in the 74th.
Chelsea finished strongly, though, with Sterling producing a similar finish to Hudson-Odoi to make it 2-2 soon after coming off the bench, and Jackson grabbing the winner by heading home a cross from fit-again Chelsea club captain Reece James.
It secured Chelsea a third straight league win and the possibility for an expensively assembled team to conclude an underwhelming campaign with a place in Europe next season.
Other results
In the fight to qualify for the minor European competitions, Newcastle stayed in sixth place — but dropped six points behind Tottenham — by drawing at home with Brighton 1-1. Newcastle is tied on points with Chelsea, with both teams three points ahead of eighth-placed Man United.
Brentford won at Bournemouth 2-1, Crystal Palace beat Wolverhampton 3-1, and Everton defeated Sheffield United 1-0 for a fifth straight home win.
