The Premier League run-in starts here and the champions started the first weekend of April by showing the way.
The way they ruthlessly despatched their closest rivals of recent seasons on Saturday lunchtime had all the hallmarks of the best side in the country.
In Jack Grealish they also had a player who was at the heart of so many of their best moments, showing pace and creativity in attack and awareness in defending.
Yes, Liverpool should not have been this easy to work out and the break of the ball went against them in a few key moments but that wasn’t City’s concern as they recovered from conceding an early goal to run out 4-1 winners as Grealish romped, feinted, pranced and trotted like a pedigree dressage horse.
Anything the champions can do, the leaders can too it seems as, no sooner had the full-time whistle blown at the Etihad Stadium, then Arsenal were restoring their lead at the summit by the same scoreline at the Emirates Stadium.
Leeds had chances, a fair few of them, but two goals early in the second half ensured the Gunners were never going to be pegged back from Gabriel Jesus’s first half penalty.
They remain eight points clear (City have a game in hand) which perhaps should be no surprise as when Jesus scores, Jesus usually wins.
The Brazil international has found the net in 52 Premier League games for both City and Arsenal. He has won a staggering 49 of those and drawn the other three.
I feared the worst for Arsenal’s title tilt when he was injured during the World Cup and ruled out for three months.
Yet they have managed his absence well and now he is back with them in prime position to end a title drought stretching back almost two decades.
In many ways he has brought far more to the club than his goals with a level of professionalism and unselfishness which appears to have rubbed off on those around him.
That was the same again on Saturday as – recalled to the Arsenal starting line-up in place of the unwell Bukayo Saka – he netted his second of the game 10 minutes into the second half as the home side eased to a comfortable win.
If that was the top two accounted for, the Premier League highlights continued apace throughout the afternoon, not least on the south coast.
Two of the most impressive teams of the season – Brighton and Brentford – threw up a six goal thriller as the Bees led three times before being pegged back three times by the hosts, on the final occasion via a last minute Alexis MacAllister penalty.
It was a breathless encounter which showed just how well both clubs are faring.
In a campaign which they have shocked the big boys and defied the Premier League betting odds time and time again, both are in contention for a European berth.
If one of them achieves such a feat, it is this SBOTOP writer’s belief that the manager of the year gong should go to Roberto De Zerbi or Thomas Frank – they are both working small miracles at their respective clubs.
Not too far away, Bournemouth leapt out of the bottom three with a second-half turnaround as goals from Marcus Tavernier and Dominic Solanke helped them beat Fulham at Vitality Stadium.
Solanke bundled home the winner 11 minutes from time, his first league goal since November arriving at an opportune moment.
Substitute Tavernier had earlier struck a stunning, curling equaliser into the top corner to cancel out an opener from Andreas Pereira, enjoying a fine season since his move to the Thames.
The action on Sunday saw the third south coast club in the top flight, Southampton, go down narrowly at West Ham which means the Hammers move out of the drop zone while the Saints remain rock bottom.
Newcastle also climbed to third after gaining a modicum of revenge for their League Cup Final defeat at the hands of Manchester United.
The final word has to be in the East Midlands.
It was easy to see why Leicester City parted company with Brendan Rodgers on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a last-gasp defeat to Crystal Palace.
A fifth defeat in six league games, it had dropped them into the relegation zone and was the latest setback in what must be a frustratingly inconsistent season for Foxes fans.
The summer departure of Kasper Schmeichel was a massive blow and Leicester began the campaign with seven defeats from their opening 10 Premier League games, slumping to the bottom of the table before a run of four wins from five games going into the World Cup break.
Since the restart, however, they have again struggled, collecting just seven points from 33 available.
Rodgers guided Leicester to successive fifth-place finishes in his first two full seasons – but for the Covid-enforced break he would probably have taken them into the Champions League on the first of those occasions too.
He could not maintain that level but he will always have Wembley and the FA Cup in 2021 – his place in the club’s history long assured. Now his successor needs to keep them up.
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