Three-horse Premier League galloping to one of its best finishes, Shaun Wright-Phillips says

Former England, Manchester City and Chelsea star attacker Shaun Wright-Phillips says this season’s English Premier League (EPL) title is shaping up to be the best he has seen.

The EPL has entered the home straight with Arsenal, Liverpool and City involved in a heated three-horse race but Wright-Phillips is tipping Pep Guardiola’s men to go all the way and defend their title.

With 10 rounds of matches remaining, Arsenal are top of the pile having won their last eight matches but they are closely followed by Liverpool and City, who have both dropped points in their last five matches.

“It has been the best title race I have seen since I have been involved in football,” maintains Wright-Phillips, who was in Cape Town last week for the Manchester City Trophy Tour in partnership with sports clothing label Puma.

“To have three teams going neck and neck is unbelievable. I have a feeling next year there will be a lot more but this one is interesting and I still believe City will win it. I think they have what it takes to deal with the competitions that they are in. They have shown it hence the trophies that they have.”

Arsenal, who dropped seven points during the festive period, have launched a spirited fightback this year with eight successive wins in which they scored 33 goals but Wright-Phillips is not convinced they can go all the way.

“From an Arsenal standpoint, I don’t know if they have the quality in terms of depth. They are still in the Champions League and there’s going to be a point where they will have to rotate players.

“They might have injuries and suspensions and the question is, do they have what it takes? Of course they might do it because they are a fantastic team but we will have to wait and see about that.

“You can’t be disrespectful to the teams that are there because they are in the title race for a reason, Arsenal and Liverpool are scoring goals for fun. City are picking results and that table can turn at any given point.

Drop points

“At the end of the day, it is about putting three points on the board, I was with somebody who said, we are going to beat you at the Etihad Stadium, and I said, that doesn’t mean you are going to win the league.

“Liverpool still have to play Tottenham and Aston Villa. City are in a similar situation, with the run of 10 games they have coming up I still think teams somewhere along the line are going to drop points.

“It is just whether teams around them are going to capitalise because it is that close, it is going to take a concurrent run of games but City have got more than enough to win the title. They know that as well but it is a game-by-game situation and they are good at that.”

City are on course for a treble and Wright-Phillips believes it is possible.

“If you think about the treble, I don’t want to mention the other team, but they are the only other team that has done it. That shows how hard it is to accomplish it but Pep [Guardiola], the players and the whole staff included have done it and by the signs of it they want to do it again.

“The way they are playing now and things are moving forward is frightening and as a fan you would never have seen it coming. You could see the structure of what they wanted to achieve but how quick they have done it has surprised everybody. They have done it the right way.”

Over the past few years, City has undergone huge transformation after multimillion investment from Abu Dhabi United Group under Sheikh Mansour.

“I am jealous because I trained in Fallowfield and we had one pitch between U-17s, U-18s and if we were lucky enough we would get into the same pitch with the reserves and the first team.

“Our pitch was always the muddiest but it was a cool way to grow because from a young age the City fans will come to watch us train and when we played games. When improved facilities came, there was that drive that I wanted to be with the first team and that made you work even harder because you are striving for something else.

“Now, they are learning all the time from different people. My son was at the academy and he used to come home and said to me I [have] got to watch this video. They are used to be sent home with homework to watch clips.

“I didn’t get that until the middle of my career when I used to get DVDs because that’s how it was back then if you wanted to check out opposition players and how you can affect the game.

“City have done everything so well from the juniors where the kids are prepared for every situation that they will be faced with in their careers such as mental issues [and] dealing with media.

“That helps them seamlessly walking into the first team and people such as Phil Foden have shown the pathway is there and if you get to the levels they know you can get to, you have a chance of becoming a professional footballer.”