Jeremy Doku’s stoppage-time strike earned Manchester City a 3-3 draw at Everton but a second-half meltdown handed the fate of the Premier League title back to Arsenal on Monday.
The Gunners now have to win their last three games to end a 22-year wait to be champions of England, says AFP.
The City are five points behind Mikel Arteta’s side with a game in hand and will find it difficult to recover from the way they imploded at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Doku opened the scoring at the end of a strong first half to give Pep Guardiola’s team a comfortable-looking lead.
However, a second period littered with mistakes was punished when Thierno Barry netted a double for the Toffees either side of Jake O’Brien’s header.
But it was Erling Haaland and then a fantastic effort from Doku in the 96th minute that did rescue a point which could ultimately keep City in the fight.
Arsenal face the possibility of relegation with West Ham away on Sunday before hosting Burnley and travelling to Crystal Palace on the final day of the campaign.
Two Arsenal wins since City last played in the league had increased the strain on Guardiola’s team.
It had been the best part of two weeks since the city’s first team had been given a real outing after Guardiola rotated liberally for last weekend’s FA Cup semi-final win over Southampton.
Everton were pinned back inside their own box for almost all of the first half but the visitors looked fresh rather than rusty.
The pressure from the city finally paid off two minutes before half-time when Rayan Cherki found Doku, who curled a shot into the top right-hand corner of Jordan Pickford’s goal.
The Toffees could have been in worse trouble before the interval, with Michael Keane escaping with just a yellow card for a rash tackle on Doku.
That decision proved crucial as City paid a high price for a host of basic defensive blunders.
Guardiola’s side twice failed to heed a warning that an Everton equaliser was coming.
Gianluigi Donnarumma parried Iliman Ndiaye’s shot back in to the box but Merlin Rohl failed to react to the rebound.
Ndiaye then had a great chance following a mistake from Matheus Nunes but again he could not beat the massive Italian in the City goal.
City had once again become their own worst enemies by the time the equaliser finally arrived.
Barry had the easy chore of sliding past the stranded Donnarumma after Marc Guehi’s poor passback.
Everton’s second arrived from another casual City mistake shortly later.
This time Ndiaye intercepted Abdukodir Khusanov in possession but Guehi rescued him with a last-ditch challenge.
But from the ensuing corner, O’Brien outjumped the defence to head home.
City were all at sea after a fast counter-attack and Barry pushed in a third for Everton from Rohl’s deflected cross.
But they were thrown a lifeline within seconds, Haaland being sent in by Mateo Kovacic immediately from kick-off to cut the deficit.
And Doku threw a dagger to Everton’s prospects of European football next season at the death.
But it may have been too little, too late to save City’s hopes of a seventh title in nine years.
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