Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has made a prediction about Arsenal’s title credentials ahead of their upcoming Premier League clash with reigning champions Manchester City.
Manchester City dropped points in the Premier League for the first time this season when they lost 2-1 to Wolves on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Arsenal cruised to a 4-0 win over Bournemouth to move within a single point of Pep Guardiola’s table-toppers.
Of course it is still very early in the season, and there are plenty of twists and turns to come, but Arsenal have the chance to leapfrog Manchester City with victory over them at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Doing so would give Mikel Arteta and his squad a huge confidence boost. Not least because they have such a poor Premier League record against City in recent seasons. Whether there is any lingering psychological boost from having triumphed over them in the Community Shield in early August remains to be seen.
Whilst it won’t define anyone’s season, Sunday’s match is a huge one for both clubs. Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes the fixture is coming around at a good time for the Gunners, who he has tipped to win the Premier League title this time around.
Neville foresees glorious Arsenal campaign
Speaking on his Sky Sports podcast, Neville said, “I’ve got Arsenal to win the league this year. That post-treble feeling, what it would have taken out of those City players and staff would have been enormous.”
“We know City have lost games in the past and gone on long winning runs so we can’t write them off but it will give a lot of encouragement to Arsenal…they’re going behind in games and they look human.”
“It will be interesting. If Arsenal keep their players fit, they’ve got a great chance this season…Arsenal won’t run away and win the league, your first title is very rarely like that, you have to get over the line crawling.”
Arsenal have a gruelling campaign ahead. If they are able to keep themselves in title contention until the latter part of the season, then they will have to prove that they can cope with the pressure this time around, having stumbled in that regard last season.
It will provide such a huge lift to the players’ confidence if they are able to beat Manchester City on Sunday, though. The visitors will be without Rodri due to suspension, whilst Kevin de Bruyne will not be available as he is injured. Their form is not the best and now could be Arsenal’s time to finally strike a real blow.
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