The Premier League title race went down to the final day last term – but Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City are well placed to finish above Arsenal again this season.
Pep Guardiola’s side have won the Premier League in each of the past four campaigns, making them the first team ever to claim four successive English top-flight titles.
Under Guardiola’s former Manchester City assistant Mikel Arteta though, Arsenal have been narrowing the gap every season – the Gunners finished eighth in 2020/21, 25 points behind City, before climbing to fifth a year later.
In 2022/23, they became City’s nearest challengers, leading the league for a long time before eventually finishing second, five points behind the champions.
Last term, Arsenal were in the title race on the last day of the season for the first time since 2004, finishing just two points behind City.
Liverpool were also in the race for much of the campaign, but fell away to finish third, nine points behind Guardiola’s men.
With Jurgen Klopp having since departed Anfield, Carragher expects the top two to remain unchanged this term, and fancies City to come out on top once more.
“I can only see Arsenal or City really,” he told FFT. “I know people are talking about Arsenal because they’ve gone close twice and they’re really close to making that next step, but I still look at Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva, and I think that is still better than what Arsenal have got.
“I think Arsenal are one attacking player short. They’ve got Bukayo Saka but the other two in terms of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard, I think they need one more who’s pretty special to take over from Manchester City.”
Arsenal begin their Premier League campaign at home to Wolves on August 17, while Manchester City travel to Chelsea a day later.
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