Arsenal are currently nine points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool after 13 games in the 2024-25 campaign, and Gary Neville believes the Gunners are still firmly in the title race.
The North Londoners strolled to a 5-2 victory against West Ham United on Saturday before the Reds secured a 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday to maintain their nine-point lead.
Arsenal have to prove themselves with the games coming in thick and fast if they want to emerge title winners this term, and Neville believes they have what it takes to stop Liverpool.
“Arsenal are still it in, definitely,” he said on Sky Sports.
“Arne Slot will be saying Arsenal are still in it and they’ll be saying that City are, but what bugged me about Arsenal’s game last night and it’ll bug Mikel Arteta, he was furious before half-time.
“He was so angry when they conceded those two goals because they’d been absolutely wonderful that first half an hour. They were brilliant. It was a perfect performance and then just sloppiness and giving teams encouragement. Other clubs look at this and think hang in there.
“Little things like that that Arsenal just need to sort out and obviously they’ve had a good week. They’ve got back on track. But there was a little, just a little bit, of a niggle last night. They’ve had a stop-start beginning to the season. The sendings off, the injuries, dropping points, but they look like they’re now getting into a position. It’s a big week. They have to go and beat Manchester United. They have to go and beat Fulham.
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“Then they have to look at Liverpool and think are they going to win at St. James’ Park? Are you going to go and win at Goodison Park in the last Merseyside Derby? And obviously if Liverpool do, they’ll still be nine points clear. But they might be thinking if they win their two games they could be seven points behind at the end of the week and that’s a lot more achievable.”
The Gunners dropped costly points in their losses to Bournemouth and Newcastle United, which could come back to haunt them in the end.
They simply have to win against Manchester United and Fulham if they want to remain in the title race heading into the festive fixtures, and manager Mikel Arteta and his men will fancy their chances.
There will be twists and turns in the title race as there are still 25 games to go, but every draw and defeat Arsenal suffer going forward would have a huge say on their chances of emerging as league winners for the first time since 2004, and they need to ensure things go as perfectly as they can in the remainder of the campaign.
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