Arsenal or Man City? Carragher gives title prediction after City FFP verdict ‘leak’
Jamie Carragher is predicting that Arsenal will still beat Man City to the Premier League title this season despite trailing Enzo Maresca’s side.
The Gunners beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 over the weekend to win their sixth match out of seven so far this season but they are still three points adrift of the Citizens.
Man City have a perfect record this term under Maresca, although they didn’t have it all their own was as they beat newly-promoted Ipswich Town 3-2 on Saturday.
The Citizens have added pressure too after the club were found guilty of 114 of their 115 charges after being accused of breaching the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.
Man City deny any wrongdoing and have appealed the verdict – but a report in the Daily Mail on Monday claims that the Citizens likely face a points deduction that will lead to relegation if the verdict is upheld.
And former Liverpool defender Carragher sees defending champions Arsenal as “the team to stop” despite Man City’s lead at the top of the Premier League table.
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Carragher said on Sky Sports: “We’ve said before that Arsenal are not the most exciting champions we’ve ever seen. They still lack stardust in the final third and didn’t get that superstar over the line that they wanted in the summer.
“There was talk of Vinicius Junior coming in obviously and Julian Alvarez but they didn’t get those deals done. They do lack star power in the final third and we saw more evidence of that on Sunday.
“Some people will also say that Mikel Arteta has still got the reins on and is stopping them from showing their absolute best going forward because they value the defence so much.
“But they’ve got the best squad in the country and the best starting line-up, I don’t think anyone can go up against that really except maybe Man City.
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“We said all of this last year as well, they didn’t have a game-changer but what they had is two top-quality players in every position.
“I still see Arsenal as the team to stop. If they dropped more points on Sunday they could have been five behind Man City.
“We obviously don’t know what’s going to happen with City, we have to take it as it is right now.
“Arsenal would have been a bit worried about being five points behind someone like Man City and dropping points in quick succession but they got the win.”
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