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Milner issues title warning as City banks on returning Yaya for boost
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MANCHESTER City’s chances of winning the Premier League title for the third time in four seasons will almost certainly end if it loses at Stoke City and Chelsea beats Everton tomorrow.
The gap between the leader and the champion widened to seven points on Saturday when Chelsea won 2-1 at Aston Villa and City drew at home with Hull City, needing a stoppage-time free kick from James Milner to grab a 1-1 draw.
With 14 matches to play, Chelsea has 56 points and City 49, followed by Southampton on 45, Manchester United on 44 and Tottenham Hotspur on 43.
Spurs are at Liverpool today while Southampton hosts West Ham United and Manchester United faces visiting Burnley.
Southampton and Spurs maintained their challenges for Champions League football by winning on Saturday, with Saints needing a stoppage-time goal from Sadio Mane to beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0. Two goals from Harry Kane gave Spurs a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in a thrilling north London derby.
United also scored in stoppage time, Dutchman Daley Blind emulating Milner by salvaging a late point for his team in a 1-1 draw.
“We can’t really afford too many more slip-ups if any. Chelsea have a big lead now, but we know, more than anyone, you have to keep going to the death and anything can happen,” Milner told reporters.
With the league title slipping away, City’s Yaya Toure cannot return quickly enough from the African Cup of Nations to lift the stumbling champion.
City hasn’t won any of its last five matches in all competitions, the club’s worst run since the final days of Mark Hughes’ reign in 2009. Surely, it’s no coincidence that this latest winless streak has coincided with Toure’s recent absence.
The team’s driving force in midfield, he has been sorely missed while away on international duty with Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations.
Mercifully, for City, Toure is on his way back from the tournament — he captained the Ivorians to a first continental title in 23 years on Sunday — but probably too late to be involved in the game at Stoke.
Stoke stunned City when it won 1-0 at the Etihad in August and although the last four league matches between the two at the Britannia have been drawn, City must win and hope Chelsea slips up to stay in the title hunt.
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