Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney insists that he now supports Arsenal to beat Manchester City in the title race this season.
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The Gunners beat Newcastle at the weekend to return to the top of the Premier League, although Man City have a game in hand.
It looks very close between the two teams, but Rooney believes that Bukayo Saka’s return from injury will be “huge” for Mikel Arteta’s team, and he also feels that City will slip up due to having difficult games.
Arsenal have not been in the best form in recent times, and they lost those six important points at the Etihad Stadium, but they were also without key players due to injuries.
Wayne Rooney in Arsenal’s title hopes
Not only is Saka’s return a boost, but Arsenal have had to cope without the likes of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz for the big campaign.
It is probably not unfair to say that if the AFC had a fully qualified team more often they would have progressed by this point.
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Rooney clearly feels Saka’s return is a huge opportunity for the north Londoners, as he backed them to get over the line because City have a tough game or two to get into.
“Bukayo Saka has been good for Arsenal over the last few years – maybe this season he hasn’t reached his peak but he is an important player,” Rooney said on his BBC podcast.
“So bringing him back at this time of the season will be big, it will be very important. It is clear that he is one of the leaders there so it is big for him to come back.”
He added: “Having someone you know who you can rely on is important and all those Arsenal players know they can rely on Saka and know what he brings to the team.
“It’s huge for Arsenal, it’s huge.”
Discussing the title race between Arsenal and City, Rooney added: “I think Arsenal will win the title and I think they will.
“I thought the Newcastle game was very important and I thought that if they won they could go on to win all the games, if they didn’t win they would have fallen but winning that game was huge.
“Man City have had a few difficult games and I can see them slipping once or twice.
“Abe City, there are a couple you think could slip, like Everton and Bournemouth.
“Man City’s games are a bit more difficult than Arsenal’s – I think Arsenal will win every game and Man City will waste once or twice.”
Arsenal could still have a good season
Arsenal are clearly not out of the title race yet, despite their recent success, and have a Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid to look forward to.
For all the criticism Arteta has had about the club’s style of play and for all the talk of the club bottling it up, there is still a Premier League and Champions League double at the club.
By very good margins, however, MCFC are also perhaps on course for a memorable campaign as they could win the domestic treble.
Pep Guardiola’s side have already beaten Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final, and won this weekend to set up an FA Cup final against Chelsea.
