This season hasn't been pretty but classic title race lies in store

Arsenal and Manchester City face a test of nerve and stamina in the home straight of ultra-competitive league

- Jonathan Wilson

A constant feature of this season has been the background grumble of dissatisfaction.

You don’t have to spend long on social media to see moans about the quality of play, the sense that everything has somehow gone backwards since the tactical focus began to shift away from the pure possession and positional football of the peak Pep Guardiola years to something more direct and focused on set plays.

Yet, as we enter the run-in, there appears to bea proper Premier League title race. There is an extremely competitive battle to finish in the top five and qualify for next season’s Champions League and, although Wolves and Burnley are probably doomed, there are four teams scrapping to avoid the last relegation slot with another three glancing a little nervously over their shoulders.

The two strands, of course, are not unrelated. The reason this is such a competitive season is that everybody is flawed. But this is howit’s supposed tobe.

The days of Manchester City or Liverpool reeling off win after win and accumulated points totals in the high 90s are over, and were a historical aberration.