Rodrygo turns any of ‘inseparable’ Liverpool, Man City or Arsenal into Premier League favourites

“I’m actually torn between Arsenal, Liverpool and City. I cannot separate them in my mind, I can’t, it’s a guess!” Gary Neville said on Monday Night Football as a caveat to his title prediction, before plumping for Arsenal.

It will be a widely shared sentiment after an opening weekend in which all three sides displayed at least one of the cliched traits of a Premier League champion: Manchester City swatted aside a lesser opponent in Wolves; Liverpool won it late against Bournemouth; Arsenal dug in to beat Manchester United while not playing well.

We don’t know if Arsenal coming second for three seasons on the trot is an indication of how only minor adjustments are required for them to go all the way or a sign that they are forever doomed to fall just short under Mikel Arteta.

We don’t know if Pep Guardiola still has it in him to go again with a very different set of players, plus Rodri, or if there’s a limit to his genius and the number of times he can reinvent and rejuvenate Manchester City.

We don’t know if the runaway champions last season have actually had that good a transfer window or if it’s flattered to deceive to pile the pressure on Liverpool and the unflappable Arne Slot.

But we do know that each of them would become the standout Premier League favourites in the minds of the vast majority if they made a move for a world-class footballer who is very available and would win a spot in all of their starting XIs to move the needle in their favour.

READ MORE: Rodrygo set to top terrible list of Real Madrid stars moving to the Premier League

Rodrygo has been linked with a move to the Premier League for much of this summer, with his lack of minutes at the Club World Cup encouraging interest from all three title-chasers, but not to the same extent as Tottenham, who reportedly upped the ante on Thursday having been dealt the crushing blow of Arsenal’s swoop for Eberechi Eze the day before.

Unfortunately for Spurs, upon hearing about a pinch-of-salt report claiming Real Madrid had ‘accepted’ their loan bid for the Brazilian, our immediate impulse was to speculate as to which of their Premier League rivals would hijack this particular deal. There should be attempts from all of them.

Our second consideration – and provoking grief-stricken Spurs fans is no more than a happy consequence here – was just how bad things must be at Real Madrid for Rodrygo to be open to joining the 17th-best team in the Premier League. He’s an £80m winger who’s won three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues whom Jude Bellingham described as “the most talented and most gifted player” at Real Madrid earlier this year.

Xabi Alonso has consistently said he’s “counting” on the 24-year-old in his debut season at the Bernabeu, but counted on him for just 93 minutes at the Club World Cup and left him on the bench for their league opener against Osasuna on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Transfer rumour ranking: New midfield target for Man Utd, trio in Rodrygo race

His actions have spoken far louder than his words and in a World Cup year no-one can blame Rodrygo for wanting out. If ‘the only possibility is Tottenham’, then it will have to be Tottenham. It could be worse than playing in The Most Competitive League In The World and the Champions League.

But he could be doing that at Liverpool, Arsenal or City, all of whom would be improved to the point of being clear title favourites if they landed him this summer.

As Jamie Carragher says, “Slot will not defend the crown with only three out-and-out attackers in Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike.” Arsenal’s growing concerns over Gabriel Martinelli have only been eased slightly by Eberechi Eze, who would be playing out of position in Rodrygo’s favoured left wing position if he was pushed into that role. And no sane City fan wouldn’t be in favour of selling Savinho to Tottenham and replacing him with Rodrygo.

He’s at worst a vast improvement on playing personnel and at best a perfect plug for a hole in a squad ill-prepared to challenge for the title. He’s a game-changer; a 2025/2026 Premier League winner.