Arsenal remain in title fight despite Bukayo Saka’s injury – Liverpool may stutter as Man City pray for top four spot

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Arsenal’s quest to win a first Premier League title in 21 years is still on – Bukayo Saka’s injury doesn’t change anything.

That’s the view of Gunners Invincible Martin Keown, who believes – or possibly hopes – that ‘nervousness could creep into Liverpool’s game’.

The Gunners currently sit six points behind leaders Liverpool, who boast a game in hand over Mikel Arteta’s men.

Back-to-back draws with Fulham and Everton threatened to end Arsenal’s title challenge, but an impressive 5-1 win away at Crystal Palace on Saturday has fans holding onto hope.

But Saka’s knock – which is expected to keep him out until February – has Gooners fearing the worst.

Liverpool, meanwhile, went one better than Arsenal in the final weekend before Christmas – scoring six goals away at Tottenham – to rack up their 12th top-flight win from 16 fixtures.

Keown acknowledged Liverpool are the best team, but has insisted there are still plenty of games for them to slip up.

Sandwiched between Liverpool and Arsenal is Chelsea in second spot, who sit four points adrift of the Reds following their goalless draw at Everton.

As for holders Manchester City, they trail the Merseyside giants by a whopping 12 points.

The Citizens were defeated 2-1 at Aston Villa last Saturday – their ninth defeat in their last 12 games in all competitions.

Pep Guardiola‘s men have won the title in the last four years, but they are in a fight for the top four with Etihad outfit seventh in the table.

Speaking to talkSPORT.com, Keown commented on the four teams as he gave his thoughts on the title race.

Arsenal

On Saka’s injury, Keown stated: “It looks like Saka will be out now for around 13 games, we’re all looking at the fixture list.

“I don’t know of a player that has created more chances for his colleagues in the Premier League this season, so he’s obviously going to be a really big miss.

“It’s up to someone to step up, maybe [Ethan] Nwaneri, who has been playing in the [Martin] Odegaard role, maybe he could come in to the front line and give us something different.

“Jesus has suddenly scored five goals in a week, that’s been a long time coming, so he needs to sustain that.

“But it’s in that final third where there needed to be more creativity and it could be less now as you’re losing one of the best players in the Premier League.”

Keown added on Arsenal’s title chances: “You’ve got to make it difficult for your opponent, but Arsenal are still very much in this fight.

“But the fixtures didn’t help Arsenal at the start of the season when you’re having to go to Villa Park, Man City away, Chelsea away, these are all very difficult games.

“And of course some of those fixtures Liverpool haven’t yet done.”

Liverpool

“I was looking at Bournemouth, Brentford and [Nottingham] Forest, they’re all fixtures that Liverpool have to embark on.

“Bournemouth have become a very good team now, certainly at home – beating Arsenal and Man City.

“Forest are the only team to have beaten Liverpool and Brentford have only lost one home game.

“And they’re just three of the games where you’d have looked and thought that is normally three points that they can pick up.

“But this Liverpool team, we’ve reached the halfway mark, there’s no doubt they’re the best team at the moment.

“I thought they were magnificent against Spurs, you could say Spurs were naive – their manager [Ange Postecoglou] wants to continue to play this high line – and the high press.

“But they exploited it and they knew how to do that and their front three were devastating.

“[Diogo] Jota coming off the bench – they’ve got a lot of options in the final third.”

He continued: “There’s a nervousness that could creep into Liverpool’s game.

“They went to Newcastle recently and it was quite difficult for them, even at Southampton they were behind, but they found a way to win.”

Chelsea

“Chelsea have emerged quite brilliantly, didn’t get the win against Everton at the weekend, and Arsenal didn’t beat Everton thee week before.

“So they’ve [Everton] done a good job haven’t they, for their local rivals, Liverpool.

“Their game of course was abandoned shall we say because of the bad weather.

“But there’s still so much football to go, you can’t say it’s in the bag.”

Man City

“If you look at Man City, what we’re seeing now is almost unprecedented.”

Keown added: “They need to look now and readjust and maybe look at what is a realistic thing for them to achieve.

“They can’t fall out of the top four, that will be what they’re looking at. There’s a lot hanging over their heads with these [130 financial] charges.

“I don’t know if that’s played a major part, but they just seem to have lost their momentum.

“And now they’re almost losing every game, it’s like that has become a habit now – the basics have gone out the window.

“Their defenders who were unbeatable last year, now I can smell fear amongst their players, against Villa there was definitely a fear on the pitch, that’s got to be eradicated.

“They’ve got to keep believing and try and pull [themselves] out of trouble, [but] I don’t think they can go above Liverpool now, it just looks as though there’s too big a gap.

“Maybe they could do in previous Man City [teams], but not this current group.”