Manchester City enjoy stroll in the park after Liverpool finally release the pressure

Manchester City need seven points from their last three games to be sure of the title after a Liverpool-assisted cruise against Newcastle…

Tottenham’s hard-earned and Klopp-annoying point at Anfield on Saturday night looked at the time as if it would be of more importance to Manchester City than Spurs themselves, and Sunday’s 5-0 dismantling of Newcastle proved that point rather neatly.

While Arsenal’s win over Leeds was ultimately unconvincing and needlessly nervy, it means the Gunners can seal a top-four finish with a win at Spurs on Thursday night while a draw will almost certainly be enough and even defeat still leaves things in Arsenal hands. All these things would also have been true had Spurs lost against Liverpool.

But for City, Liverpool’s failure to beat Spurs was a welcome tonic at a difficult time. There were some overthought, dare we say hipsterish suggestions after the events of midweek that City faced the tougher task this weekend. It’s not really 20:20 hindsight to dismiss that as hokum. Spurs were and are better than Newcastle, and the 1-1 draw at Anfield made it eight points from four games against the top two. Newcastle are much better than they were a few months ago, but come on.

City were always likely to win this game, but there were also no guarantees. At the very least, Newcastle’s improvement and City’s latest Champions League catastrof*ck had the potential to make this a tricky and fraught afternoon full of stress and worry. But Liverpool, having maintained absurd standards to pile pressure on City over recent months, finally blinked and released it all. City, with a renewed spring in the step, enjoyed the strolliest of strolls to victory. A fine result for the plucky battlers against a club