'I don't buy it' - Arsenal given Premier League title verdict after Man City defeat

Arsenal are not a 'generational' team but are not 'bottlers' according to Premier League icon Michael Owen, who has given his verdict on the title race after the Gunners' Manchester City loss

Michael Owen believes Arsenal will still coast to the Premier League title, despite their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City, and rubbished the notion that Mikel Arteta's side are 'bottlers'. The former Liverpool and Manchester United forward has backed the Gunners to get over the line due to their efficiency.

Arsenal failed to land their first piece of silverware of the season as they came up short at Wembley, as Nico O'Reilly fired Pep Guardiola's men to victory. The north London side hold a nine-point lead over their rivals in the league, but still must play City, who have a game in hand.

Owen believes that Guardiola's side will need a miracle for the Gunners to leave them an opening and reckons Arsenal have put in the hard yards to get to this stage. Speaking to football.london, Owen, the official UK ambassador for Casino.org , a comparison website highlighting the best online casinos for UK players, suggested the Carabao Cup final would make little difference for the run-in.

"Well, it can only have a little positive impact but obviously Arsenal don't have to play Man City every week," Owen said. "They've only got to play them once more.

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"We all know that City simply have to win that game and then hope for a miracle elsewhere. I probably think City's run-in is a little bit harder than Arsenal's as well. So it looks like Arsenal are home and hosed.

"They're so efficient. I can't really see them slipping up. Everybody's saying 'oh yeah, Arsenal always slip up' and things like that. I don't buy that. Before Liverpool won a league, they came second a few times before Manchester City won a league they had to come second as well.

"You don't go from coming fifth in the league to winning it very often. I mean, Leicester came from nowhere to win it, but there's not many teams that don't go through the hard yards of coming second and third and second again and then winning it, you know, it's a building process.

"So I don't buy that Arsenal are bottlers or anything else like that. I do think they'll coast to the league.

Arsenal can no longer achieve a quadruple but are still in contention for the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Owen is relieved they are not on their way to a clean sweep as he does not believe the Gunners are a 'generational' side, despite being 'bloody good'.

"Obviously, they're not going to be doing the clean sweep, which If I'm honest, I'm quite pleased about because if a team are going to do the quadruple, a team are going to win a treble or something like that. I just think it needs to be a bloody good team, and obviously Arsenal are bloody good, but they're not like a generational team. It's not the Man City team that got 100 points on the Liverpool team that got 99 points. It wouldn't be right.

"Now if Arsenal go and win a double then fair enough, you know that's an amazing achievement and probably what they deserve if they won an FA Cup and a league. You couldn't begrudge them that but to go and win a whole host of trophies, I don't think they're quite there yet.

"They might develop to be in that, but at the moment I think they deserve a trophy or two this season. They've been the best team in the Premier League, they deserve that. If they if they win another one, then fair play to them."