According to Manchester United icon Rio Ferdinand, Arsenal’s chances of sustaining a title challenge this season are doubtful. He has named two matches where he believes they will falter.
Rio Ferdinand has named the two fixtures that he believes will cost Arsenal the Premier League title, both against their fierce rivals.
With only seven league games remaining, Arsenal currently lead the table, tied on points with Liverpool but ahead on goal difference. The title race is fiercely contested, with defending champions Manchester City trailing by just one point in third place.
Despite holding the top spot, Rio Ferdinand, a former Manchester United star, predicts that Mikel Arteta’s side will falter in two crucial fixtures, ultimately costing them the title. As the season nears its climax, any dropped points could prove fatal for Arsenal’s championship aspirations.
In his analysis for TNT Sport, Ferdinand predicts Arsenal’s downfall in their upcoming matches, foreseeing a 2-1 loss to local rivals Tottenham and another defeat against United. He believes Erik ten Hag’s team will triumph 3-2 over Arteta’s men.
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According to Ferdinand’s projections for Arsenal’s rivals, the Gunners would finish second with 86 points, tied with Liverpool but with a lesser goal difference, allowing Guardiola’s team to clinch the title for the fourth consecutive time.
Arteta remains focused on the next game against Aston Villa, disregarding the timing of Arsenal’s match relative to City and Liverpool’s. He emphasised this in his pre-match media conference: “We will know the results but we’ll still have our duty to win our game which is the only thing that we can control.
“That’s happened a few times already and it’s going to happen again in the next few weeks, so we’ll just focus on what we can do, what we can control and make sure that we perform like we have to do against a really good side to try to beat them.”
Arteta was asked about his players’ response to the pressure of the title race, but he downplayed suggestions that they might be feeling nervous as the end of the season approaches.
“I think it is just motivation,” he added. “I think they’ve lived it already and they are super excited about what we are doing and the way the team is performing, winning matches and they want more. We know the task, the challenge ahead of us and how good we have to be to win it, but we’re going to try.