As much as City and Arsenal will be pissed at going out of the Champions League (I think we can safely assume neither of those 2-goal deficits are going to be overturned), their early exits aren't great news for Chelsea or Liverpool either.
The main justification for the Scousers being taken seriously in the title race was that their lack of squad depth was offset by the absence of European distractions. They're still 3rd favourites (8/1, just ahead of Arsenal at 9s) but give or take the odd FA Cup tie/Champions' League dead-rubber, the Gunners' run-in is all of a sudden looking equally as friendly. Of course neither of them were likely to
actually win it anyway, but even sneaking 3rd place looks a tall order for Brendan Rodgers' side now.
Further up the table, Jose Mourinho should be worried too. With City still in both domestic cups and their postponed league game against Sunderland to come, prolonged European involvement would have left them with the sort of fixture pile-up that'd stretch even their squad. They don't have to worry about that any more, and 11/10 on them finishing champions looks better than ever.
But then the Special One always said that Chelsea would struggle to win it this year, didn't he? And we all thought it was mind-games...
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