Wayne Rooney still believes Arsenal are favourites to win the Premier League title despite Sunday’s damaging defeat against Manchester City.
The Gunners gave as good as they got at the Etihad Stadium but were ultimately left to rue missed chances and their failure to prevent Erling Haaland sweeping home the winning goal in the 65th minute.
Pep Guardiola’s side will now leapfrog long-time leaders Arsenal if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor in midweek courtesy of their superior goal difference.
With five games to go, however, Rooney feels it is far too premature to write off Mikel Arteta’s men, even if the bookies’ now have City in the driving seat.
‘This title race is not over yet, I still feel like there are some more twists and turns to come,’ said the former Manchester United striker.
‘It is is obviously going to be tight but City have got one more game to try to win, so I still have Arsenal down as slight favourites.
‘I’ve been in this situation myself, where you need to win all your games for the title. You look at your games and you think well we should win this one, or that one, but it never pans out that way.
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‘From now until the end of the season it is just going to be down to which team keeps their composure the best – that’s who will win it.’
While he stopped short of agreeing with Rooney, Guardiola was keen to sound a note of caution and remind his ow players that winning the league from this position will be far from a forgone conclusion.
He said: ‘I don’t know, I didn’t think Arsenal were in bad momentum. In the Carabao Cup we were better.
‘Today we were really good. They came here after the defeat with hunger and we won. They are are so competitive, we know that. But at the same time, we are too.
‘The table speaks for itself. They have been the best. Congratulations to the guys, but don’t lose the focus.
‘Wednesday is our game in hand and we can be there if we win. That’s what we have to do. Doing it will be so difficult because Everton or Brentford, or Aston Villa, Crystal Palace.
‘The games that we have. Bournemouth away. Last week they won in Emirates and Newcastle. It will be more difficult.’
Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, gave an emphatic answer when asked if he still retained hope his side can reverse their current slide and end their campaign with a bang.
He said: ‘100%. I said to the boys we have to look in the mirror and the team we played in the moment, the history they have, to come back from a goal down.
‘There’s a lot of things to take. The difference was in both boxes that’s for sure.
‘At the end it’s the result we came to conquer. We did a lot of things right to take the game where we wanted.
‘We had the best chances in the game but we didn’t put them away and that’s the reality.’