‘No doubts’ - Arsenal fans will love Pep Guardiola’s Premier League title race prediction

Pep Guardiola believes Arsenal are serious Premier League title candidates this season.

The Gunners have enjoyed an excellent start to the season, sitting top after 12 games, two points clear of Manchester City, who are the favourites for most. Mikel Arteta’s men have only failed to win two of their games so far, but they know they have a long way to go before they can call themselves champions.

City are going to be a force over the course of the season, armed with Erling Haaland, and the two sides are yet to meet so far this term to give us a better idea of which of the sides may come out on top.

The Premier League has been as open as ever this season, and we are also seeing a real scramble for third and fourth, with a number of sides in the mix for Champions League football at this relatively early stage.

Though, according to City boss Guardiola, as many as seven have hope of winning the Premier League itself, including the Gunners.

“I would say Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Tottenham, United and Liverpool. I think these teams can fight for the title,” Guardiola said in his latest press conference.

Surprised by the inclusion of Liverpool, who are off to a mightily disappointing start, reporters questioned Guardiola. He responded: “Yes, because they have same manager and squad who were able make 17 victories in a row, 18 victories in a row in the past why are they not able to do it again. Nobody knows what is going to happen after the World Cup, there’s the transfer window, players coming back. This is my feeling.”

Speaking about Arsenal. Guardiola added: “The first candidate at the moment is Arsenal. Why? Because they’re top of the league and the rest are close. So let’s see how we finish these next two games [before the World Cup] but I think many of these teams deserve to be there, we see how they play all of then, how teams like United, Newcastle and Tottenham have taken a step forward. They can be there – no doubts.”