The Title Race, The Drop Zone, TFC draw AGAIN, and UCL QF previews....

Here’s your Tuesday morning briefing, time for your weekly Footy Talks briefing from Room 442.

Premier League

The Premier League has NOT disappointed this season, with a gripping title race going all the way to the wire, and a relegation battle in which any of the bottom eight clubs could still go down.

The Room 442 jury is still (just about) out as to whether Arsenal can hang onto their slender lead and secure a first Premier League title in 20 years. 

As we reported on Friday, Arteta claimed luck would play a major role ahead of the Gunners’ trip to West Ham on the weekend. And that luck completely deserted them, as the north London side let a 2-0 lead slip for the second week in a row.

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City look stronger than ever, and that’s due in no small part to Erling Harlaan, who seems intent on breaking the laws of physics and generally taking the p*ss on a weekly basis. 

Last weekend James correctly predicted that the Man City striker would add to his league tally against Leicester on Saturday, and those two goals at the Etihad mean Harlaan has now equalled the Premier League record for most goals scored during a 38-game season.

On the other side of Manchester, Antony has been in the news after a man-of-the-match performance in Utd’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest. The gang got into it as to whether the Brazilian is now justifying his £81M price tag. But bearing in mind Harlaan cost around thirty million LESS, that particular question is pretty easy to answer. Unless maybe you’re a Man U fan….

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At least one supercomputer somewhere still has Arsenal lifting the Premier League trophy, but Sara (and most sane people) are now backing City to land a fifth league title in six seasons.

At the bottom of the table, James served up his picks for who’s likely to survive the drop, with Southampton a dead cert for Championship football next season and Crystal Palace the most likely to make the grade after a recent resurgence under 75 years old (!) Roy Hodgson. 

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MLS

To draw or not to draw? That seems to be the question for Toronto FC right now. 

We’d picked Atlanta for the win on Saturday, and so it would have been had Brandon Servania not found a 93rd minute equalizer to hand the Reds their sixth tie in seven matches.

Michael Signh broke the internet discussing Richie Layrea’s importance to the team, after the wing-back scored his 100th TFC goal late in the first half.

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But this team are still struggling for both success and identity in the post Greg Vanney era, and Sara spoke with ex-TFC captain Steven Caldwell about how Bob Bradley’s side have been thoroughly underwhelming this season.

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Champions League

Finally, the Champions League quarter finals will be decided this week, and we’ve already served up some previews for Tuesday night’s games.

Chelsea’s Todd Boehly implosion is reaching comic levels, and Real Madrid’s visit to Stamford Bridge could make ugly viewing for Lampard and co. Carlo Ancelotti’s side can’t stop killing it in Europe, and Chelsea can’t stop getting killed in recent matches. 

Unsurprisingly we like a Real win here, and you can check out our full report over on the Homestand website.  

And Napoli need a big performance from return striker Victor Osimhen if they are to turn over AC Milan’s 1-0 win from the first leg.

Napoli have won every game this year in which Osimhen has either scored or assisted, so we’re backing the Nigerian to be the difference in Naples tonight.