Man City have more quality, Arsenal must get a grip - how the Premier League title will be won and lost

Manchester City take on Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday in a mammoth game that will go a long way to deciding the destination of the title

Manchester City and Arsenal have been here before. City have won six Premier League titles under Pep Guardiola and four in a row before that run was broken by Liverpool a year ago. The Blues are now hunting another.

Arsenal, in contrast, have been second for the past three seasons and haven't won the Premier League since 2004 under Arsene Wenger.

The Gunners looked well set to end that drought this season and have led the way for months. But defeat by Bournemouth last time out followed by City's win over Chelsea has cut the gap to six points. Guardiola's men will be top if they beat Arsenal on Sunday and Burnley at Turf Moor next Wednesday.

There's just over a month of the campaign to go and it promises to be a fascinating few weeks. Here's how the pundits view it.

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Roy Keane

Speaking on Monday Night Football, Keane said: "At this moment in time they are letting the nerves get the better of them but they have to deal with that. Arsenal have got to get a grip - or it will slip by.

"Obviously they want to try and win the game (on Sunday). You have to go and perform and try and get a positive result. You don't go gung-ho. Man City earlier in the season went down to Arsenal and were quite happy to sit in. So whatever happens on the day you have to try and find a way to win. I don't believe they have to go there and put a marker down. They have to go and perform and a draw is not the end of the world for them.

"This is on the players now, the manager has to do his best but the position they have got themselves into, the squad they have, we will find out what kind of characters these Arsenal lads over the next three, four, or five weeks. That is challenging each other, not being best mates with everybody. If they slip up here they will never forgive themselves.

Jamie Carragher

"Arsenal and Manchester City are trying to win the league differently," said Carragher on Monday Night Football. "The best way to describe that first half for Manchester City (at Chelsea) was it was like watching Arsenal. Lots of slow passes and no penetration.

"But Manchester City are a different team to Arsenal and they have more penetration and quality in the final third.

"If Arsenal get a draw then we would all say it was a great result, it is just how they go about doing it. They found it tough at Anfield and lost there. They lost at Villa, they drew at Chelsea. They went to Manchester United, a really poor performance but won the game.

"The thing for Arsenal is how they are here (in their head). A manager is not going to change now having been a manager for five or six years in the next week. We know how Mikel Arteta is going to go about it. He is going to back his strengths and his strengths are his back four and maybe Declan Rice causing problems and getting on the ball. It is not in the attacking strength, they haven't got an outstanding attacking player."

Gary Neville

"Manchester City are smelling blood," he said on Sky Sports. "They are heading into a free week to prepare for a monstrous clash next weekend."

"Maybe I've got more faith in Arsenal than Arsenal have got in themselves, but when you are in a title race, you're six games out and you've lost a football match, you've got to put it into perspective.

"Did they really ever expect that they were going to be handed their first title on a plate by Pep Guardiola and this Manchester City team, or by the Premier League? It doesn't happen like that.

"For Man City, they're going to ramp it right up. Pep Guardiola and his players have got the perfect situation. The Man City crowd have seen titles before and their manager is an absolute legend, one of the greatest of all time. He'll be right up for this game next Sunday.

"It's almost perfection for him, and you've got Rodri, you've got [Gianluigi] Donnarumma, you've got [Erling] Haaland, you've got [Phil] Foden, you've got Bernardo Silva, all these players who've won it before.

"I do feel now is the time for Arsenal. I'm not going to go and say it's now or never, but it does feel a bit like because if you've had five years of trying to climb that mountain, and you've just failed at that final hurdle each time, there has to be a moment where you get over the line.

"Arsenal will crawl over the line. I don't think they'll get over the line easily, they might even lose next week, but I do think they've probably got a little bit of a cushion.

"Manchester City aren't perfect, and Arsenal will just get there, but they're in a lot more trouble than they were at 12.30pm on Saturday, when they were just about to kick off against Bournemouth."

Wayne Rooney

"I think City will have the edge on that [psychologically], just purely the manager and players they've got. They will be able to stay a little calmer than the Arsenal players," he said on The Wayne Rooney Show.

"They will be worried because when you go on a run and lose a few games, you start thinking 'where's the next goal, the next win going to come from?' That negative mindset really has an impact on your performance."

Rio Ferdinand

"If you go there and sit back like Liverpool did at PSG the other day, it's slapsville,"' Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel Rio Ferdinand Presents. "You're getting pumped. You can't do that. Do you win leagues doing that?"