Arsenal news: Pep Guardiola makes Gunners title prediction as vote made on captain

Arsenal are continuing to fly high in the Premier League, with Mikel Arteta’s side stretching their unbeaten run to seven games with a victory over Crystal Palace

Arsenal received a major boost to their Premier League title bid with victory over Crystal Palace seeing them extend their lead at the top of the table.

The Gunners went into Sunday’s match two points clear of second-place Sunderland with a game in hand, with the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea both falling to shock defeats on Saturday, but they have now strengthened their position with another impressive win.

It means that Mikel Arteta’s side have now won seven successive games in all competitions, with such form seeing them made favourites to lift the Premier League title this season, 22 years on from their last league victory.

While it is still early in the season, Arsenal’s form has seen Pep Guardiola make his own prediction about the title race, with his side Man City set to be contenders for the crown with star striker Erling Haaland in fine form.

Meanwhile, Arteta has given an insight into the strength of his squad by revealing how they voted for Martin Odegaard to captain the side this season, with four other players part of his leadership group. Fresh off the back of the Gunners’ win over Palace, Mirror Football rounds up the latest news from around the Emirates Stadium.

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Guardiola makes title prediction

Guardiola has weighed in on the title race debate and says he believes the Gunners will drop “few” points over the course of the season. Despite Liverpool’s current poor run, the City boss said the same about the Reds, while he also suggested an unnamed third team would rarely slip up in the fight for the title.

While Arne Slot’s side were favourites to win the league ahead of the current campaign, given their impressive form last season and huge summer spending, but they have now lost their last four Premier League games.

Speaking ahead of his side’s trip to Aston Villa, Guardiola singled out Arteta and Slot’s sides for praise as he gave his take on who would be title contenders come the end of the season.

“In the Premier League, I have the feeling now that Arsenal is not going to drop much points,” he said. “So that is the reality. I have that feeling with Arsenal, with Liverpool as well.

“Now Liverpool lost their last games – not in the Champions League in Frankfurt – but I saw the game against United, they had incredible chances to win the game. So I think Liverpool remain one of the main favourites to do that.

“The distance, three, four points at this stage is nothing,” he added. “I always had the feeling that both teams and maybe another one, they will lose few, few points. That’s why we have to be there.”

Vote made on captain

Arteta has also given an insight into the wealth of leaders within his squad and opened up about the influence that captain Martin Odegaard has around the club.

With Arsenal currently enjoying a fine run of form, their strength has been underpinned by the five players who make up Arteta’s leadership group. They are Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Gabriel and Mikel Merino.

But with only one player acting as the club’s official captain, that honour fell to Odegaard again ahead of the new season, with the Gunners boss revealing that the Norway international was the overwhelming choice amongst his teammates, who held a changing room vote to decide upon a skipper.

“By a mile, by a big, big 100 marks, everybody chose the same person, which is Martin Odegaard,” said Arteta. “[That] is the most clear sign that you can have, how they feel about who has to be their captain to defend, improve and win the matches that we want to win. So, I mean, there’s no question about that.

“Martin doesn’t need to open his mouth and everybody says ‘he’s my captain, I want him to represent, I trust him 100 per cent, he’s the guy I want to have next to me.”

As well as the main leadership group, Arteta is able to turn to several other experienced squad members, including William Saliba, Martin Zubimendi, Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, David Raya, Ben White, Gabriel Jesus and Riccardo Calafiori.

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