Pundit Ally McCoist is “sticking” with his Premier League title prediction even though Arsenal have one “big problem” to deal with this season.
Arsenal ran Man City close in the race for the Premier League title during the 2023/24 campaign but ultimately finished two points adrift of Pep Guardiola’s side.
Heading into this campaign, Mikel Arteta‘s team were widely backed to be Man City’s most serious Premier League title challengers, but they have endured a difficult start to the 2024/25 season.
The Gunners have finished games against Brighton, Man City and AFC Bournemouth with ten men and they only took two points from these matches.
Arsenal are currently three games without a win in the Premier League. After being beaten by Bournemouth, they drew 2-2 with Liverpool and slipped to a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at the weekend.
This poor run of form leaves Arsenal fifth in the Premier League. They are five points adrift of second-placed Man City and seven away from table-toppers Liverpool.
Despite this, McCoist is still backing Arsenal to win the league this season.
“The draw between Arsenal and Liverpool didn’t change my opinion on the title race at all,” McCoist told talkSPORT.
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“If either team had won, I still certainly wouldn’t have been ruling the other out. There’s still a long way to go and there are some very good teams in the Premier League who are capable of taking points off Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
“I actually really enjoyed the Arsenal-Liverpool game! I enjoyed the intensity of it, there were some fantastic bits of skill and some great individual play. Arsenal got off to the perfect start with a beautiful goal from Bukayo Saka, but I thought a draw was probably a fair result.
“It was a good game and it was a great advert for the league. It hasn’t altered my opinion that Arsenal and Liverpool will be right up there come the end of the season. I went with Arsenal at the start of the season and I’m sticking with that prediction.”
McCoist mas made this prediction even though Arsenal have a “big problem” as he has identified the “problem” Liverpool will face “further down the line”.
“The next weeks before the international break will be pivotal for Arsenal. They’re obviously missing William Saliba through suspension, but I think the key player they’re missing is Martin Odegaard,” McCoist added.
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“When Saliba or Gabriel are out, they’ve got players like Ben White and Jakub Kiwior who can fill in. However, when you lose somebody unique like Odegaard, you can replace him with a body but you can’t replace him like-for-like. That is their biggest problem.
“If they can pick up a victory against Chelsea before the international break that will be a real boost. Then they can regroup and kick on.”
On Liverpool facing problems later in the season, McCoist continued: “Liverpool have pleasantly surprised me so far this season.
“I really like Arne Slot; he speaks very well. I still think that they’re going to have problems further down the line, though, with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s contract situations. That will be a problem for them.
“Nonetheless, they’ve started the campaign really well. They’ve just had one hiccup, which came against Nottingham Forest at home, but that can happen. Other than that, they’ve been excellent!”
