Arsenal have been warned that the Premier League title might not just be a two-horse race after Manchester City closed the gap to the top back down to five points with a victory at Stamford Bridge. Just over one month on from their very own 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge Pep Guardiola's men defeated the Blues, but far less comfortably.
Whereas Arsenal dominated proceedings from start to finish at SW6, City struggled throughout the first period and were perhaps lucky not to be behind, offering some extra hope for Gunners fans that Guardiola's side aren't impenetrable. The expectation remains that City will put together a remarkable run of form to steadily eat away at Arsenal's lead but that hasn't happened so far.
It isn't just the blue part of Manchester that Arsenal should be wary of though, with Jamie Carragher admitting he hadn't seen the Erik ten Hag revival coming at Old Trafford. United are still nine points back from the summit, but are stringing together a run of form that has seen them enter the top four.
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With just one loss in their last 10 matches, four straight wins and 12 wins in 16 there is an outside chance of them making a fist for the title. Carragher doesn't quite see it going that far but still concluded the threat to the two teams at the top, saying: "I looked at the table at the end of the game, maybe I haven’t been looking at it properly, I couldn’t believe where Man United were! It gave me a major fright.
"I'm just thinking if City could have drawn this game, they [Man United] could have (challenged for second). United would have been two points behind them. Thank god City won tonight!"
Guardiola's substitutes combined for the only goal of the night, and the manager was able to display his team's strength in depth throughout the evening. Mahrez and Jack Grealish came on at half-time and were involved heavily in the goal. Having been rotated for the game in a surprising move, Carragher sees the options available to Guardiola as potentially decisive heading into the second half of the season.
"I mentioned in commentary the difference between what we saw a couple of nights ago at Arsenal and what they can do to change it from the bench," he explained. "That was a huge difference tonight in terms of the quality they bring off the bench, and that’s what won them the game."
Arsenal have had to look towards academy graduate Eddie Nketiah whilst Gabriel Jesus is out injured whilst City have World Cup winning Julian Alvarez on the bench, as well as a handful of expensively purchased attacking options. It's financial firepower that the Gunners cannot currently match, but they are attempting to reinforce this winter with Mykhaylo Mudryk at the top of their priority list.
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