Manchester City appear to be Arsenal’s biggest threat this season, however, Chris Sutton believes there is quite a difference in quality between the two sets of players.
Over the weekend, Arsenal extended their lead at the top of the Premier League, before Manchester City defeated Bournemouth to close the gap back down to six.
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Pep Guardiola’s team have been rather hit and miss this season, which has allowed the Gunners to sneak away from the pack in the early stages.
Several of City’s players have underperformed this campaign, and according to Chris Sutton, just two of them would make it into Mikel Arteta’s team.
Erling Haaland and Donnarumma during Man City vs Man United.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Chris Sutton thinks only Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma would start for Arsenal
Sutton believes Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma are the only two Man City players who would start for Arsenal right now.
The majority of City’s players have struggled to hit their stride so far this season, with Haaland the team’s top scorer by quite some margin.
The Norwegian has 13 goals to his name this term, and the next highest is Burnley’s Maxime Esteve, who scored two own goals for Guardiola’s team.
Meanwhile, Donnarumma, who impressed Arteta, has been a resounding success since making the switch to the Etihad, and Sutton thinks he is better than David Raya.
“I’d say Donnarumma, OK, I’d give you Donnarumma over Raya. That’s what I would give you. The rest, I’m not sure,” Sutton told BBC 606.
“Rodri?” the former Premier League striker was asked, “No, no, no, no, no, not this season. Absolutely not. Haaland, yeah, so two Manchester City players would get in the Arsenal team.”
Darren Bent makes worrying Erling Haaland claim
Darren Bent is worried City are starting to become too heavily reliant on Haaland and has called for the likes of Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden to step up.
Bent told TalkSPORT: “Well, that’s the thing: if he doesn’t, and he gets a slight injury or knock, then you are thinking, okay, where are the goals coming from?
“They’ve got a lot of really tidy good footballers like Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Nunes, Bernardo Silva, they’ve got excellent players.
“But, you’re right, someone’s going to have to step up because it almost feels a little bit like he’ll get you out of trouble because he keeps scoring goals. At some point, say he’s marked out of a game like he’s playing a game against Liverpool next weekend, this weekend. This would be the test.”