Do Arsenal Have What It Takes To Challenge Liverpool For The Premier League Title?

In the last two seasons, Arsenal have finished second, each time behind Manchester City. This is a stark improvement to where they were before this, but on each occasion, they led the Premier League for large parts of the season until they dropped off the pace and were overtaken by City. This year, the Champions have fallen behind and are currently fourth, but the Gunners are still second, this time behind Liverpool. The Reds have a six point lead on Arsenal, and have a game in hand too.

How Arsenal Beat Manchester City

Last night, Arsenal made their intentions clear to the rest of the Premier League, that they were going to fight for the league title, despite being behind. They faced Manchester City at home, and even though the visitor’s haven’t been at their best this season, they have still been on a good run recently, having not lost since before Christmas. Arsenal started quickly with a high press, winning the ball back just outside the City box before Kai Havertz squared for Martin Odegaard to give them the lead.

Martin Odegaard is the most un-wonderkid like wonderkid…

Talked about European wide from his early teens, gets that dream move to Real Madrid…

But even though that move doesn’t work, he moves to Arsenal, becomes captain and operates with absolutely 0 ego.

Works so, so hard!

— Dougie Critchley (@DougieCritchley) February 2, 2025

They could have been 2-0 up at half time, but Havertz missed from a similar opportunity. David Raya was forced into a string of good saves towards the midway point, as City piled the pressure on. 10 minutes into the second half, Erling Haaland made the pressure count as he headed in a cross from Savinho to level for the visitors, but 33 seconds after the game restarted, Thomas Partey’s deflected shot restored Arsenal’s lead.

From there, goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri sealed an emphatic win for Arsenal that says to the rest of the league: “Are you watching?” Lewis-Skelly played an excellent game at left-back, often having to deal with the humble Haaland, despite being significantly smaller and less experienced. In the reverse fixture, the Arsenal teenager was booked before he had made his Premier League debut and ended the game in a heated argument with the Manchester City striker where the Norwegian asked: “Who are you?” After that performance, there are very few football fans who don’t know Myles Lewis-Skelly’s name.

Can Arsenal Catch Liverpool?

Based on just numbers alone, a six point gap isn’t too remarkable and could be overcome quite quickly in a lot of situations, however this is not one of them. Liverpool have already played the ‘big six’ bogey teams, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, twice this season, while Arsenal have to play them both again.

𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗟 𝗧𝗢 𝗔 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧 💪🌳 pic.twitter.com/LyoBHBKI84

— 433 (@433) January 14, 2025

The Gunners have a relatively straightforward set of fixtures coming up until they play Forest at the end of the month, while Liverpool have to face Manchester City and Newcastle. Those two games might just give Arsenal the opportunity to close the gap to the league leaders, and make their meeting in May that bit more interesting.

There is still a lot of football to be played between now and then, but Arsenal certainly have the chance to keep Liverpool fans worried until that fixture, for that is the most important game left in the season, and it will remain that way unless Arsenal slip up before then. It has happened in the past, so I wouldn’t put it past them.