Rio Ferdinand and Chris Sutton disagree over Arsenal as 'weakness' claim made

Pundits Chris Sutton and Rio Ferdinand disagree over Arsenal’s Premier League title chances this season. The Gunners are hoping it will be third time lucky this season after narrowly losing out to Manchester City in each of the last two seasons.

Arsenal spent big last summer and they have already racked up a big spending bill this season to keep David Raya and to bring in Riccardo Calafiori, with more set to arrive. Even with those new arrivals, it will be tricky for the Gunners to dethrone City, who have a tight grasp on the title, able to stay ultra-consistent under Pep Guardiola’s watch.

But with each failure comes added motivation, and pundit Rio Ferdinand believes the Gunners will get over the line this season. He said on TNT Sports: “I think it’s hard to go against City because of how successful they’ve been over the last four seasons. They’ve set a new benchmark and now a new record of four in a row and that’ll be their aim, that’ll be the target and that’ll be the thing they’ll be aiming for, for sure in their dressing room.

“But I just think Arsenal, maybe [Riccardo] Calafiori coming in on the left side, if he kind of comes in and shores that area up, I think he’s a fantastic player, played in a Bologna team under Thiago Motta that had a lot of rotations so he understands that type of football that [Mikel] Arteta wants to play.

“And I think that was the area that you would say was a slight weakness in the team and I think he gives them more balance there and a bit of stability, more stable so I’d go maybe Arsenal to win and there’s got to be a hunger.”

Not everyone is as convinced by Arsenal’s title credentials, though, with Chris Sutton believing the Gunners’ new signings have not convinced him enough. He told BBC Sport: “I’ve not seen anything to suggest it will be third time lucky for Arsenal in the title race.  They got a lot of praise for the way they went to the Etihad Stadium in March and put on a really good rearguard action against Manchester City, but you look at how the table ended up and think they might have to go back to being braver against them next time. I still think they will come second though.”