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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

Mikel Arteta suggests Man City are best side in Premier League history ahead of Arsenal title showdown

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes the current Manchester City side could be the best the Premier League has ever seen.

City have enjoyed incredible success under Pep Guardiola, winning four of the last five League titles.

Arsenal currently lead them this season, but they are just five points clear and City also have two games in hand.

The two sides will meet on Wednesday in a huge game at Etihad Stadium and asked ahead of that if City are the best team of the Premier League era, Arteta said: “Probably, yes.

“They are an incredible team, incredibly well coached. The culture they have set. That winning hunger, to win one season, two, three, four.

“You need a lot of good people around that has the capacity to set those demands, they have incredible players, that’s for sure. But that’s not enough.

“They have something else there, credit to them for the way they’ve done it and the consistency they have shown. Then there’s their style. They have brought something very different to this league that hasn’t been seen before.

“If you look across Europe in the last six years, a team that has been able to consistently get the number of points like they have done, the next team is very, very apart.

“So, for us to have been able to go toe to toe with them is great. But it’s not enough because we want to win it so we have to find a different edge and now that we are here we are going to win it. And to do that, excellence is the only thing that is going to take you where we want to go.”

Arsenal’s lead over City at the top of the Premier League had been eight points at the start of this month, but it has been cut to five. The Gunners have stumbled in recent matches, drawing their last three games in a row, and it has handed initiative to City in the title race.

Arsenal also have a miserable record at Etihad Stadium, not winning there since January 2015.

But asked what makes him confident that he can end that run, Arteta said: “What I have seen. What I have seen when we played against them, what I have seen all season, and what I have seen the way we have prepared.”

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