Arsenal will be boosted by Man City’s slip-up this weekend, feels Gary Neville (Picture: Getty)
Gary Neville still thinks Arsenal will win the Premier League title this season and feels they will be ‘encouraged’ by Manchester City’s slip-up on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Wolves, making it back-to-back losses after they crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Newcastle United.
The Gunners, meanwhile, won 4-0 at AFC Bournemouth and are just one point behind City after the opening seven games of the campaign.
Mikel Arteta’s team were painfully close to landing the Premier League trophy for the first time since 2004 last season – topping the table for 248 days – the most for a club who failed to win the title in English top-flight history.
City eventually came out on top as they secured a famous treble with Guardiola’s side having now lifted five of the last six Premier League trophies.
Neville, though, is still backing the north Londoners for glory this time around as he told his podcast: ‘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.
‘They could easily win the league this season and obviously it is just one game, but little results like that give the other teams encouragement.
‘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.
‘Against Newcastle, it was a serious team that Pep Guardiola took up there and at Wolves, they’re conceding a goal or two, 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.
‘It was a good response from Arsenal [against Bournemouth]. They’d have come out of the north London derby disappointed. They’ll face those moments in the season.
‘They’ll be confident that they are back in the title race. The gap isn’t going to four points or six, when you wonder if you will ever catch them.
‘Stay with them and get to that point where there are nine or 10 games to go again.
‘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.
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‘Last season they fell apart late-on and made mistakes, but they have to get in that position again. Then we’ll see if they’ve matured. I think they will have.
‘I just want them to have composure and be a bit more ruthless. Big tests are coming and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens, because it won’t all be about Manchester City this season.’
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