NBC will have teams at Arsenal and Manchester City for the Premier League Championship on Sunday

Rebecca Lowe covered many of the Premier League’s big moments during her 11 seasons hosting NBC’s coverage.

The only thing missing was a second-placed team that overcame the leader on the final day of the season.

This weekend, Lowe and the network’s studio show will be at the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal attempt to do something unprecedented in Premier League history – go from second to first in the Championship on Sunday.

“Are we owed one? Maybe,” Lowe said this week before leaving for London.

Manchester City has a two point lead enter the final day of the match. Arsenal need a win over Everton and need City to lose or draw against West Ham to win their first Premier League title in 20 years.

If City win, they become the first team to win four consecutive titles since the Premier League became England’s top division in 1992.

Lowe thought he was close to seeing history two years ago when Liverpool took an early lead against Wolves and Manchester City fell two goals behind at Aston Villa. City rallied for a 3-2 win and went on to win the title by a point.

While the studio team will be in Arsenal, the top announce team of Jon Champion and Graeme Le Saux will be in Manchester. That’s what NBC is covering, no matter what happens on Sunday.

Coincidentally, Arsenal were the last team to jump from second to first in England’s top flight in 1989.

“You don’t want to be where the story isn’t. It’s a difficult decision because it’s a dynasty in Manchester, but sometimes in sport the greatest stories are the stories revealed,” Lowe said of the decision to have the studio show at Arsenal rather than Manchester City.

NBC will once again have coverage of all 10 games running simultaneously. NBC will air Manchester City, USA Network has Arsenal, while CNBC will air Brighton vs. Manchester United and Golf Channel has Chelsea vs Bournemouth. The Peacock will broadcast all 10 matches, including six exclusively.

The title going down to the final day will cap what has been a record season for NBC’s coverage. Premier League matches on linear television and streaming are averaging just over 540,000 viewers per game, which is on track to surpass the record set in 2015-16.

This will be the third consecutive season and fourth overall NBC has averaged over 500,000.

Six of the most-watched US Premier League games have come this season, including a record 2.1 million for Manchester City’s goalless draw against Arsenal on March 31. Peacock has had two games this season averaging over 1 million.

The influx of new fans — driven in part by the title race but also by NBC going to different cities during the season for Premier League fanfests — was one of the biggest things coordinating producer Pierre Moossa was happy about this season. season.

“We want to make sure we are authentic and true to the sport. but at the same time we want to be inclusive and welcoming to new audiences,” he said.

The other was the addition of Champion, who was already a favorite among US soccer fans from his work with ESPN. Champion and Peter Drury, who is in his second season with NBC, give the network two top-tier announcers.

“What I’ve noticed is that they bring out different aspects of Lee (Dixon) and Graeme’s game. Lee and Graeme when working with John is a different listen than when working with Peter. Both are excellent listens, but different perspectives, points of view and commentary. I think the viewers really benefit from that,” said Moossa.

In addition to the title race, NBC will be keeping an eye on Liverpool hosting Wolves Jurgen Klopp’s final game as manager of Liverpool.

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AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer