Man City are 'confident' of beating Arsenal to Premier League title, says star man

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Evening Standard

·15 January 2026

Man City are 'confident' of beating Arsenal to Premier League title, says star man

The Gunners have ‘bottled’ title leads before - is another one coming?

Manchester City are "confident" of catching Arsenal and winning the Premier League title this season.

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That's according to Tijjani Reijnders, who says City must win the weekend Manchester derby against Man Utd on Saturday if they are to mount a stunning title win.

Arsenal are heavy favourites to win the title this season, for what would be their first championship victory in 22 years, thanks in part to City draw their last four games.

The Gunners have opened up a six-point gap over City and third-placed Aston Villa. Few teams have overturned since a deficit, but City are one of them.

And Reijnders has suggested that there is almost an expectation at City that they will overcome Arsenal and claim another league title.

“We have to keep the pressure on Arsenal, so it’s very important for us to win this game and get in the right flow again,” Reijnders told The Times.

“We are pretty confident [of catching Arsenal], to be honest. We all feel like we are really growing this season and that’s a good sign.

“We have the feeling that we’ve not reached our ceiling yet.”

Arsenal have their own history of overcoming huge title leads. In fact, they hold the record for the greatest points deficit overcome in a Premier League title race when they fought back from 13 points behind to beat Manchester United to the league crown in 1997-98.

But, in more recent history, the Gunners have a history of letting title leads slip.

Arsenal held an eight-point lead over City with nine games to go in 2023. The next season, they won 89 points but still failed to hold off the challenge of City, who moved into top spot in the penultimate weekend to deny Mikel Arteta & Co. once again.