Premier League Preview: All Eyes on Manchester Bids for Champions League Spot

Lemons had been spotted in Manchester. On digital billboards across the city, and in record shop windows, the Stone Roses' iconic sliced-lemon logo was back, as talk intensified over the possible release of new material 21 years on since the last. 

Mancunians of a droll persuasion, of which there are many, will point out if it was lemons the city's inhabitants were looking for they should have tried the dugouts at Old Trafford and the Etihad Stadium at any point since August.

Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast have nothing on Manchester when it comes to producing bitter fruits. It's safe to say neither Manuel Pellegrini nor Louis Van Gaal will be expecting an "All for One" chant at the weekend. 

"Bye Bye Badman," perhaps for Louis; "Made of Stone" seems apt for Manuel. 

The most remarkable Premier League season, arguably of them all, more tootles than hurtles toward its conclusion at the weekend.

Leicester City are now well adjusted to wearing a crown, while Newcastle United and Norwich City have their heads wedged in stocks either side of Aston Villa. After a midweek round of fixtures proved to be the storm before the calm, it is the battle for the final UEFA Champions League place taking centre-stage on Sunday.

Some people are trying to make Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal squaring up for second place a thing, but to me it's like getting excited over a cake box when what was inside has already been eaten. Neither of the clubs' boards seem bothered about it, given Mauricio Pochettino has this week signed a new five-year deal, amid reports, per the Times (h/t Metro), Arsenal have presented Arsene Wenger with a two-year extension. Cue grown men in north London getting their crayons out to make a protest banner for the weekend visit of Aston Villa.

Should Arsenal end up finishing above Tottenham for a 21st consecutive campaign, it will be the most Spursy finish to a season in living memory, in what has been the least Spursy of campaigns. It's been that kind of season.  

Back to Manchester, it's fair to say the fight for fourth does not match the fervour invoked in the city for the Roses' return either. 

It's not quite a wooden spoon, but it's not one made of gold either. To be fair, knowing the Champions League, it probably would be gold on a literal level, but speaking more metaphorically, Manchester’s top clubs boiling down their respective seasons to duking it out for fourth on the final day seems to have all the glamour of two blokes going at it in a pub car park over a barmaid who is not interested in either of them. 

Whatever Sunday's outcome, neither club will consider the campaign a success. City's Capital One Cup win, and potentially United lifting the FA Cup, are nice days out, but not even close to sating the headiest of expectations. 

Manchester City essentially need to avoid defeat at Swansea City to guarantee Pep Guardiola doesn't arrive in the summer hating every single one of his new players. The Spaniard would rather be a conjoined twin with Jose Mourinho than sully himself with the UEFA Europa League. Lose, and the door would be left ajar with a neon sign flashing "unlocked valuables this way" hanging from the Etihad. 

Should City draw, and Manchester United win their home game with Bournemouth, the two clubs would be equal on 66 points. City’s superior goal difference means United would have to score 19 to pip their neighbours. 

Given United have scored 10 fewer goals than an Everton side who have just sacked their manager for being tortuously bad this season, it's safe to say the fourth official won't pack an abacus. Bournemouth could wear blindfolds with the bell taken out of the ball and still United wouldn't score 19.

That's not to say City can afford to take their foot off the gas, had they ever had it on it. Swansea have improved markedly since Francesco Guidolin arrived in January on an initial six-month contract, with the club in the bottom three. With a similar absence of any fanfare, the Italian has guided the Swans to 11th place and 12-points clear of the drop zone.

They have also won their last four home matches and conceded just a solitary goal in that time. Manchester City's rickety back line has conceded six in its last two Premier League matches and will have to improve against a Swansea side in a rich vein of goalscoring form. Seven goals have been plundered in their previous two games, against West Ham United (4-1 win away) and Liverpool (3-1 win at home), respectively. 

Guidolin's decision to sign off for the season key players involved in UEFA Euro 2016, including captain Ashley Williams, talisman Gylfi Sigurdsson and Neil Taylor, will delight the international managers' union. Van Gaal less so. 

Should United lose, and both West Ham (Stoke City away) and Southampton (Crystal Palace at home) pick up victories, they would finish in seventh place. At the time of David Moyes' sacking United were seventh, with four matches of the season remaining.

In Van Gaal's defence, Moyes' United were 13 points behind fourth-placed Arsenal. Still, it's hard to imagine Mourinho wouldn't improve on seventh. 

The Independent's chief football correspondent Mark Ogden wrote an interesting piece on Wednesday, in which he made the claim Manchester City are suffering an identity crisis if not quite of Pellegrini’s design, certainly one his carelessness has engendered.

The crux of his argument is the Chilean’s apathetic manner, with body language so languid since the Guardiola announcement he's started to resemble a bat in sleeping with his eyes open (more often than not in press conferences), has proved contagious.

Ogden opined: "Pellegrini’s approach of doing the bare minimum of what is required contractually appears to have seeped into the dressing room and, judging by recent performances and results, it has gone beyond merely saying 'no' to a request for 30 minutes of the players' time."

Pellegrini signed off three years and as many trophies in Manchester on Sunday in front of a crowd numbering roughly the same as those on the pitch. Taking into account players' wives, girlfriends, anything in between, kids, club officials, Moonchester, the ghost of Bernard Manning and one half of Bros Samir Nasri, there wouldn't have been much in it.

When Pellegrini took to the microphone to bid his farewells, it was a bit like when you find out the monosyllabic bloke who has fixed your work computer for the past 13 years is called Geoff and has now left the company, without fixing your computer.

It was a shame so many fans had left the stadium so soon after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal, as it had been proposed coloured cards would be held up to spell out in a mosaic: "Ta, and that. Can’t stop, picking Pep up from the airport."

It’s hard to disagree with Ogden’s observations, and it seems unlikely too many City supporters would either. A gloriously industrial description of what the club has become by a long-serving member of staff in the ninth paragraph is hardly a lone dissenting voice in an industry where points on the stock exchange are valued more highly than those accrued by on-field efforts.

Pellegrini used Thursday's press conference to issue a staunch defence of his record, per the Guardian's Daniel Taylor. Sounding not a little like an Apprentice candidate being ushered into a black cab, the Chilean presented data presumably prepared for him by House of Cards' Francis Underwood.

"If we make a summary of the three seasons I’ve been in charge we were the team that had the most points. We were the team that had the best performances [in my time] as manager and we were the team that scored the most goals."

He failed to mention City have managed 65 points from 37 games this term, having finished with 79 last season and 86 the previous year. Pellegrini is unlikely to present a line graph of his time in Manchester at his next job interview. 

At least City are doing something about it will be the cry from Manchester United supporters. City have suffered a blip, and they have responded by convincing Guardiola they are the next logical step in a managerial career that has taken him from Barcelona to Bayern Munich.

Even in an era when the good times have rolled so readily, at a time when the club didn't think bringing out the Capital One Cup for Sunday’s lap of honour was worth bothering with (despite going 35 years without a trophy prior to the FA Cup win in 2011), you’d still struggle to find a City fan not excited about what Guardiola will bring to the party next season.

If United start next term with Van Gaal still at the helm, the club's commercial department should seriously consider handing the keys to the megastore to a psychiatrist practise.

It seems inconceivable that with 18 minutes remaining of Tuesday night's game at the Boleyn Ground, all United had to do to secure Champions League football was hold onto a 2-1 lead against West Ham, and then beat Bournemouth at home.

That no one was surprised when they didn't spoke volumes. It should have been tears on the pitch at the anguish at throwing away the Champions League gift City had presented to them, wrapped in a sky-blue bow.

Instead, with a shrug, it was forgotten almost instantly as the Boleyn Ground channelled Cirque du Soleil through the eyes of porn barons to commemorate West Ham United becoming the first-ever club to move grounds. 

United were lumpen and misshapen for much of the contest either side of a 20-minute spell in the second half, when Anthony Martial yet again showed why he is the man a side seemingly in perpetual transition needs to be built around. 

The question for Manchester United supporters is whether another season in the Europa League would be worth it if it solicited a change in manager. That United's board seems to be waiting to see if Swansea can do them a favour before deciding whether it's worth persevering with Van Gaal is a measure of where the club is currently at. 

Ian Brown once famously said Manchester has got everything except a beach. When the curtain falls on Sunday, Manchester will have everything except a beach and a team in the top three of the Premier League (barring the unlikeliest of events elsewhere) for the first time since its inception in 1992/93.

It's not just City suffering an identity crisis, but Manchester football period.

Chelsea vs. Leicester City (All Premier League games to be played on Sunday, at 3 p.m. BST)

Newcastle United vs. Tottenham Hotspur 

 
Arsenal vs. Aston Villa

Everton vs. Norwich City

 
West Bromwich Albion vs. Liverpool

 
Watford vs. Sunderland

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