Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has eased Manchester City's greatest fear ahead of the final run-in. City face Palace on Wednesday night as they look to keep their title hopes alive with a win.
Pep Guardiola's men know they need to win their last three games to stand a chance of winning the title, but they also need Arsenal to slip up against either Burnley or Crystal Palace.
Palace are in a unique position to be able to majorly impact the title race, facing both title candidates, but they do have more on their minds than just finishing the season well and giving Glasner a good send-off.
Oliver Glasner just eased Man City's biggest fear
Palace have a Conference League final with Rayo Vallecano just three days after the final game of the season, against Arsenal. Naturally, there are fears among Man City fans that Glasner will heavily rotate for that last game to make sure his players are in peak condition for the final just days later.
There has been much debate around the situation. but Glasner has made it clear he doesn't care who wins the title, remaining fully focused on his own job.
“After your question I had a look at my payslip to see if we get some money from Arsenal or City,” he said in his pre-match press conference. “I couldn’t find it. I’m responsible for Crystal Palace, not for Arsenal and for City. I just got the confirmation."
“We always think what is best for us. This is my responsibility. Our influence on the title race will definitely be less than VAR. With this amount of games, playing every three days, we always rotated."
“It’s just necessary in such a long season. In the last league game, against Everton, in every physical data in the Premier League we were top three. Just playing three days after [the Conference League semi-final second leg against] Shakhtar Donetsk with more or less the same team."
That seems to indicate good news for City, with Glasner strongly hinting that he prefers his team to be in rhythm, backing them to play football in a condensed manner.
Ultimately, though, it is out of City's control beyond winning their own games, and Guardiola's men lost the opportunity to keep it in their hands during that draw with Everton. Once you blow such an opportunity, there is little you can say about circumstances like these, and Guardiola, to his credit, has always made that clear.
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