Gary Neville believes that one team now has ‘no excuses’ in the Premier League title race this season after a sensational twist on Saturday.
Arsenal got their first win in five top-flight games as they cruised past Nottingham Forest, but Manchester City fell to a third league defeat in a row in incredible fashion as they were thumped 0-4 at home by Tottenham.
Those results leave the Gunners just one point behind the champions and give Liverpool the chance to move eight points clear at the summit today if they can beat Southampton.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the Etihad Stadium clash last night, Neville claimed that City’s struggles actually place more pressure on Arsenal than the current leaders to win the title this season, given that Mikel Arteta’s side appeared to be in the stronger position to contend at the outset of the campaign.
The ex-Manchester United defender said: “They must be thinking ‘hang on a minute – there’re no excuses here now’.
“I’m looking more at Arsenal with that statement than Liverpool because I think anyone would have said at the start of the season that Arne Slot would have come in and done what he’s done, I’d have said ‘no, I’m not quite sure that’s going to happen’.
“This was Arsenal’s season if it wasn’t going to be City’s, so I think the pressure is really on Arsenal now to step up and go for it. They had a good start there with the 3-0 [v Forest].
“For Liverpool, sat there at the top of the league, with that back five that they’ve got, and those front players and the options that they have, they must be really fancying it now.”
With Arsenal having pushed City close in the past two seasons but come up short both times, Arteta’s team have yet to prove that they can go the distance in a Premier League title race, whereas Liverpool have succeeded in that regard in the recent past.
Admittedly that was under Jurgen Klopp in 2019/20 with several key changes in playing personnel since then, but we can see why Neville is saying that there’s greater pressure on the Gunners to capitalise on the champions woes’ than the Reds.
That said, should Slot’s team open up a significant gap on their nearest pursuers over the next fortnight, the spotlight will be fixed with increasing intensity on them, particulary with their destiny in their own hands and enough of a buffer to withstand a couple of setbacks.
Liverpool will be acutely aware that they can’t pass up an opportunity to go eight points clear of City today, especially when those two face off at Anfield next Sunday, but the good news for LFC right now is that they just need to keep doing their job rather than relying on favours from elsewhere.
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