Sir Alex Ferguson issued a hilariously blunt response when he was asked who will win the Premier League this season out of Arsenal and Manchester City. He was briefly quizzed on the title race while at Cheltenham Festival, with the Gunners boasting a five-point lead over the reigning champions.
The former Manchester United boss led the Red Devils to 13 Premier League titles during his 26-year tenure at Old Trafford. Ferguson faced Arsene Wenger more times than he did any other opposition manager, often locking horns as they battled it out to lift the prestigious trophy.
Arsenal were United's fiercest rivals during the Scotsman's time at the club. City provided tough competition for Ferguson in his latter years at the helm and now the two clubs have come together to dethrone the Red Devils from top-spot.
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So, when Ferguson was quizzed on his Premier League title prediction, the 81-year-old wasn't best pleased. In a quick interview with ITV Racing's Matt Chapman, the former United boss was asked who he wanted to win the two-horse race for this season's silverware.
He replied: "I’m not interested."
Ferguson was a master of mind games during his time at United so it's no surprise to see Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta go back and forth. Speaking to the press after City's win over Crystal Palace, the former explained why Arsenal are better positioned to win the league.
"Still Arsenal are the favourites because they are up front," said Guardiola. " They make an incredible first leg [of the season], they drop a little bit then come back again. They have many years without winning the Premier League and they give you this extra that helps you win games in 93rd minute, 98th minute, that’s something they have which we don’t have because we won back-to-back two times.
"That’s why when the people say 'what about your opinion of the team and the season', after two times back-to-back, one team gets 50 points in the first leg, still we are there.
"Normally in this country when you win something a lot and you don’t start the season well or someone is better, you drop or you are not consistent. But still we are there. This is the best trophy and compliment we can have
"I don’t know what will happen at the end of the season but they know we want to be there and we will fight to be there and this is great."
Then, after Arsenal's win over Fulham on Sunday, Arteta responded to Guardiola's claims. When asked whether if it's advantageous or not that City are chasing them in the title race, he replied: "I don’t know.
"We discuss what we discuss internally to be really humble, to work on the next training session and try to be better every day. That’s our focus, there’s still a huge part of the season to be played."
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