Arsenal couldn’t lose with Liverpool and Man City facing off, but are they still title favourites?placeholder image
Arsenal couldn’t lose with Liverpool and Man City facing off, but are they still title favourites? | AFP via Getty Images
Arsenal couldn’t lose with Liverpool and Man City facing off, but are they still title favourites?
Arsenal couldn’t really lose with Liverpool and Man City playing each other at the weekend with one team almost certainly ruled out of the title race already.
Mikel Arteta will have been frustrated at dropping points against Sunderland, but the Stadium of Light will be a difficult venue for any team to go to this season, except for those lucky enough to visit when half of their team will be at the African Cup of Nations.
After a slow start, it now looks like City will be the team to beat with four points separating the two sides. Liverpool meanwhile are down in eight some eight points adrift despite spending over £400m in the summer.
Wayne Rooney names Arsenal as title favourites
Arsenal won’t be as generous to other teams in terms of the goals that they lost to the Black Cats and will be looking to get back on track on the other side of the international break. The ever-reliable pairing of Gabriel and William Saliba weren’t are their best against Sunderland, however, after so many games without conceding, they are allowed an off day.
According to Wayne Rooney, speaking on his BBC podcast, the dropped points aren’t a sign of things to come: “I think it will be difficult for Liverpool now. I know Arsenal dropped points at the weekend but you look at their form overall and the way Man City are coming into a great run, it will be difficult for Liverpool.
“But it’s still early on the season so you never know. I just think Arsenal and Man City are the two favourites now. Arsenal will be a little bit nervous about Man City coming up but I think it will be one of them two. I still probably edge towards Arsenal. I have Arsenal as slight favourites.”
Arsenal are the only team to not have any dip in form yet with City starting slowly and still, despite the emphatic win over Liverpool, being over-reliant on Erling Haaland. They aren’t quite a one-man team, but the big Norwegian is currently a one goal head start before the first whistle.
Alan Pardew makes Liverpool title claim
Agreeing with Rooney, former West Ham United manager Alan Pardew reckons that Liverpool’s form and the strength of the two teams at the top makes Arne Slot’s job an awful lot harder: “And I can only think of a, in the second period, just after half time, when Slot didn't make any changes, they (City) had probably their best spell of about 10, but only about 10, 15 minutes match, wasn't it? And then it was game over. I think, I think it's worrying times in terms of now, looking at Liverpool to win the title, because they've got a lot to make up, particularly with the two powerful teams.
“When you look at Arsenal and you now look at Manchester City, and I think it's only the last two or three weeks we've been saying this about Manchester City, now they're starting to look powerful again.”
Despite City’s recent form, there is a feeling that it wouldn’t take much for them to have another run of poor results. Jeremy Doku isn’t a consistent goalscorer and players like Phil Foden are clearly missing the influence of Kevin de Bruyne, a Haaland injury and City would be a lot easier to play against. As for Arsenal, they are sitting four points clear at the top of the table with half a team missing due to injury, on paper, they should only get stronger.
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