Jamie Carragher doesn’t think Arsenal or Manchester City “should panic” just yet in the Premier League title race but he reckons Gunners have “the edge”.
Arsenal and Man City both lost over the weekend to Everton and Tottenham respectively with Manchester United taking advantage by beating Crystal Palace 2-1 at Old Trafford.
The Gunners are still five points ahead of City and a further three points in front of United, while Mikel Arteta’s side also have a game in hand on both Manchester clubs.
Carragher feels like he is watching a “different Manchester City” this season and he’s giving Arsenal “the edge” in the Premier League title race.
“There’s still a long way to go but you’re almost waiting for Manchester City to kick in and to be the Man City we know so well,” Carragher told Sky Sports when asked about Arsenal and Man City.
“It just feels like this might be the season where they’re not quite themselves, for lots of different reasons. It’s not the Man City of old.
“This idea that they’re going to do what they’ve done to Liverpool a couple of times in the title race, I’m not sure it will happen.
“It feels like a different Manchester City that we’re watching right now.”
Carragher added: “There’s so long to go. Neither team should panic. There will be a lot of ups and downs.
“But I do think Arsenal have the edge, because they’ve been the most impressive team so far. We’re still waiting to see the real Man City but it’s not quite happening for them.
“The two games between those teams are massive but I fancy Arsenal right now.”
Arsenal lost 1-0 to Everton in the Toffees’ first match under new boss Sean Dyche with the Goodison Park crowd roaring them on to victory.
Asked whether his side were feeling the pressure in the title race, Arteta told reporters: “No, I don’t think so, we’ve played a lot of games this season like that already.
“But credit to them, this is what they train every single day. You have to defend really well to get your control and earn the right to play. For moments we did it and in other moments we didn’t do it well enough to dominate in the game.
“In the last 10 or 15 minutes, particularly after we made the changes, we started to give away a lot of free-kicks and a lot of rash decisions.
“Which is exactly what they want – slow the game down, do everything really long, play long into your line and don’t play a lot. We haven’t managed that well enough.
“I want the team to know how much I love them. I love them much more now than three hours ago, a week ago, a month ago, three months ago.
“It’s very easy to be next to the players when they’re winning and performing. These are the moments when I love my players more and my staff more and we’re going to stay together.
“This journey is going to be difficult and challenging and there’s going to be big stones in the middle and we have to overcome that. Now we have to prepare the week really well to get to Saturday with the right emotional spirit to beat Brentford.”
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