Arsenal vs Manchester City: Title Race

Manchester City have called the shots in the early throes of the Premier League season. After just five games, they are unbeaten and top of the table.

Arsenal, however, are on their coattails, three points behind, and they will be eyeing back-to-back title triumphs, something they have never achieved in the Premier League era.

While it’s difficult to cast any aspersions at this stage of the campaign, it could be a fascinating title with plenty of twists and subplots. How will things pan out? We’ve run the rule over Arsenal and City, and assess who will take the spoils.

When Mikel Arteta took over at the Gunners midway through the 2019/20 season, he found a side in the doldrums. However, over the past few seasons, he has built strong foundations and put his side in the title conversation.

Three years of being in City and Liverpool’s shadows and dogged persistence paid off last season as the Gunners stormed to the title, clinching the league by a seven-point margin.

Over the summer, the Gunners splashed out over £200 million to beef up their squad, and Bruno Guimaraes was an eye-catching deal, adding more guile in the middle of the park. There has been more incisiveness in the attacking third, and five of Arsenal’s eight goals at the time of writing have come from open play.

Last season, Arsenal netted a club-record 25 goals from set pieces, underlining their prowess from dead-ball situations. Although their progress was checked before the international break with a disappointing 3-0 reverse away to Brighton, Arteta has an unshakeable belief in his squad.

Determination and togetherness are the two hallmarks of defending champions. While there are likely to be bumps in the road along the way, as showcased at Brighton, the fact that Arteta’s men have sealed the deal before means they aren’t bottlers anymore.

Emulating the achievements of Pep Guardiola will take some beating, and let’s not forget that City have had almost a vice-like grip on the Premier League trophy, winning four of the past seven editions.

That said, Enzo Maresca is a distinct shift away from Guardiola in terms of style, where he prefers to adopt a 4-2-3-1 formation with two deep-lying midfielders to act as a screen for the defence. Meanwhile, Guardiola preferred to have two wingers coming infield, and Maresca is trying to do things his own way.

Nevertheless, City boast plenty of weapons, and the additions of Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez, for example, have helped fill in the missing pieces in the jigsaw.

Undeniably, Erling Haaland is their trump card, and once again, the Norwegian hitman will be in the running for the Golden Boot award. The quickest player to reach the 100-goal milestone in England’s top flight (111), Haaland at the time of writing, has chipped in with five goals in his first five games.

Having previously broken the record for the most goals in a single campaign (36), Haaland is devastating when given a sniff of a chance.

For City, rectifying the errors of last season where they were too slack at the back cost them turning draws into wins. However, they will be desperate to prove their detractors wrong and show they can still compete effectively in the post-Guardiola era.

By all accounts, last season’s title race was a bit of a damp squib. It fizzled out as the Gunners wrapped things up with a game to spare.

They spent 234 days at the top of the table, and there was a sense of inevitability about their triumph. However, the neutrals will be hoping that both sides can hit the heights of the 2018/19 campaign.

In that season, it went right down to the wire. Going into the final day Manchester City were on 95 points while Liverpool were on 94, and City had the momentum, clocking up 13 wins on the trot. The Reds, meanwhile, were unbeaten across 16 games since losing to City at the Etihad at the start of the year.

Liverpool kept to their end of the bargain with a 2-0 win at home to Wolves, while City turned over a one-goal deficit before thrashing Brighton 4-1. The top two’s combined final total of 195 points was the highest ever in an English top-flight campaign.

Meanwhile, the 2011/12 campaign and THAT Sergio Aguero goal will be forever ingrained in the minds of City, and they proved they can do things the hard way.

On paper, there is little separating these two heavyweights. Arsenal are trading at a very short 1.50 with respected crypto bookie CasinOK, while City are available at a longer 4.30 with another top betting operator, Betpanda.io.

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What’s evident is that the Gunners have now shown they can last the course, and the confidence will be surging through the veins of its players.

With City, there is a big cloud hanging over them. Systematic breaches of financial regulations extending over a decade have put them in hot water with the Premier League, and it remains to be seen what punishment is dished out. Perhaps it could be a hefty one, and emotions could run high. 

Maybe Arsenal might be given a clear run at the title, but one thing is for certain is that this could be a title race like no other. Regularly check in on the latest odds to see how things are shaping up.