Gary Neville explains why one recent Arsenal trend makes them title favourites

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Gary Neville has now explained why he believes Arsenal will be crowned Premier League champions at the end of this season.

Arsenal were unexpected title challengers last season. They led the league for the majority of the campaign, but ultimately ran out of steam in the final stretch and were pipped to the post by eventual treble-winners Manchester City.

In order to build on their recent progress, and go one step better this time around, the Gunners invested heavily in their squad over the summer. A club-record fee of £105 million was spent to bring Declan Rice to the Emirates Stadium. Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber, and David Raya were all also signed.

The north London outfit currently look on-course to mount another title push this season. As things stand, with twelve matches played and only one defeat blemishing their record, Arsenal find themselves just one point behind the leaders, Manchester City.

Mikel Arteta’s side have achieved this despite not being quite at their best on the pitch, certainly in the final third. Iconic former goalkeeper David Seaman has admitted his surprise at Arsenal’s ability to grind out wins despite their performance levels.

Arsenal seeking to peak at perfect time

Gary Neville believes that this tricky start could ultimately be to their benefit. Speaking on The Overlap, the former Manchester United defender said, “I think that Arsenal can win the league this season. Despite starting slow, the football will come, the football that we saw from them last season. The fact that they’ve started a little bit slower, I never think is a bad thing, they’re sat there in the pack behind [top].”

“I do think that when the football comes, and it could come after Christmas at March which is the right time, they could be the opposite of last season – a bit of a slow start and stronger finish.”

If Arsenal can maintain this recent trend of picking up points whilst struggling for cohesion on the pitch, then it makes sense that they will be able to kick on when their attacking play really clicks, and will be starting from a strong league position at that point.

If Arsenal can hit top form in the business end of the season then they stand a great chance of coming out on top in the final sprint for the finish line. They just need to keep themselves in title contention until then.