Paul Merson has given his two cents on which team out of the two will win the Premier League now: Manchester City or Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola’s men are now at the top of the league table.
Meanwhile, Arsenal and Liverpool are sitting two points adrift of City in second and third place respectively.
The Gunners have a superior goal difference to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
After Manchester City beat Luton Town 5-1 at the Etihad Stadium, they had a Sunday to remember.
Liverpool and Arsenal were overwhelming favourites to defeat Crystal Palace and Aston Villa at home respectively.
Paul Merson predicts who will the Premier League: City or Arsenal
At first, the Reds lost 1-0 to Palace at Anfield, courtesy of an Eberechi Eze goal in the 14 minute.
Liverpool shot themselves in the foot, missing chance after chance in a game that they could have comfortably won on another day.
After the Merseyside-based side’s failings, it seemed far-fetched to expect Arsenal to drop points on the same day as them.
In the first half, the North London side were dominating proceedings in what seemed like a normal day at the office for them at home.
But Aston Villa completely and utterly bossed the game in the second half, with Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins helping the visitors earn a 2-0 victory.
As a result, City are now in pole position to capitalise on their title rivals’ mishaps and make history once again.
Paul Merson told Sky Sports that in his opinion, Arsenal have no chance of beating Manchester City to the Premier League title now this season.
“Because they’re chasing the best team in the world now. The best team in the world who’ve done it year in, year out. They reel off…when was the last time they got beat, Man City?”
“What is it now, they haven’t lost at home for 40-odd games. Unbeaten in 17, they just reel them off, it’s not like we’re sitting here going, ‘I wonder how Man City will be this season now for the rest of the games.’ They’ll reel them off, they will reel them off, I will be shocked”, he said.
“They will just keep on playing and playing and playing and wiping teams away in my opinion. If it was someone else they were chasing down, every chance. But I’ve seen this team too many times, they’re bang out of luck, Arsenal. Last season and this season, they’re chasing one of the best teams to ever play football.”
Manchester City are in the driving seat now
In our view, Paul Merson makes a fair point as Arsenal might have made a fatal error in their hopes of winning the Premier League title, putting Manchester City in the driving seat.
The same applies to Liverpool, who lost to 14-placed Crystal Palace on Sunday.
With just six league games to go, while City also have tough games left like against Tottenham away from home and against West Ham on the last day of the season, their fate is now in their hands.
Pep Guardiola and Co. are simply far too experienced and they might hark back to how they approached the final run of their previous title wins to get the job done this time around.
It is City’s title to lose now and so far, they are yet to really let it slip at this stage of the season, even under Mancini and Pellegrini.
