"Huge for Arsenal" - Wayne Rooney makes new title race prediction | OneFootball

Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney insists he’s now backing Arsenal to edge Manchester City in this season’s title race.

The Gunners beat Newcastle at the weekend to go back to the top of the Premier League table, though Man City have a game in hand.

It’s looking extremely close between the two teams, but Rooney feels that Bukayo Saka’s return from injury will be “huge” for Mikel Arteta’s side, while he also feels City will slip up due to having harder fixtures.

Arsenal have not been in great form in recent times, and lost that crucial six-pointer at the Etihad Stadium, but they have also been without key players due to injuries.

Wayne Rooney on Arsenal’s title hopes

Not only is Saka’s return a boost, but Arsenal have also had to cope without the likes of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz for most of the campaign.

It’s perhaps not totally unfair to say that if AFC had had a fully fit squad more often then they might well have been further ahead by this point.

Rooney clearly feels Saka coming back is a big boost for the north Londoners, as he backed them to just about get over the line due to City having one or two tough fixtures they could slip up in.

“Bukayo Saka has been great for Arsenal over the last few years – maybe this season he hasn’t hit the heights but he’s such an important player,” Rooney said on his BBC podcast.

“So to get him back at this time of the season is going to be massive, it’s going to be really important. He’s clearly one of the leaders in there so to have him back is huge.”

He added: “Having someone you know you can rely on out there is really 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, absolutely huge.”

Discussing the title race between Arsenal and City, Rooney added: “I think Arsenal will win the title and I do think they will win it.

“I thought the Newcastle game was so important and thought if they won that they could go on to win every game. If they didn’t they could have fallen apart but to win that game was so big.

“Man City have a couple of tricky games in there and I can see them slipping up once or twice. Man City have the trickier fixtures, if you look at Arsenal’s last four games they are really winnable, all four of them.

“The City ones, there’s a couple you think they could slip up, like Everton and Bournemouth. I give the edge to Arsenal based on the fixtures.

“Man City’s fixtures are a little bit trickier than Arsenal’s – I think Arsenal will win every game and Man City will mess up once or twice.”

Arsenal can still have a great season

Arsenal are clearly not out of this title race just yet, despite their recent blip, and they also have a Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid to look forward to.

For all the criticism Arteta has had over the team’s playing style and for all the talk of the side bottling it, there’s still a potential Premier League and Champions League double on the cards for the club.

It’s very fine margins, though, with MCFC also perhaps on course for a memorable campaign as they could win a 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 clash against Chelsea.