Considering how successful Manchester City have been over several years now, a question that perhaps arises amongst many is whether they have a weakness and if yes, how that can be exploited by their title rivals.
Mikel Arteta would certainly have spent the summer trying to figure out how Arsenal could do so in their pursuit to knocking City off their perch as the best team in England over the past four seasons.
So far, the Gunners boss has struggled to find the solution as Pep Guardiola continues to showcase why he could be football’s ultimate serial winner.
During the upcoming 2024/2025 season, an answer the masses will be eager to discover is whether Guardiola can remain a step ahead of Arteta or whether the latter has a trick up his sleeve to stun his former colleague.
Regardless, the expectation remains that if there is a title race between Manchester City and Arsenal, it could potentially go down to the last day of the season like during the previous campaign.
Rio Ferdinand makes fresh claim about Man City-Arsenal title race
Rio Ferdinand feels Arsenal will pip Manchester City to the league title this season.
The pundit stressed how much Riccardo Calafiori could help the North London side improve their defence and add that extra bit of quality that could be needed for them to become the champions of England.
However, the former Manchester United feels there is another key reason why the Sky Blues could finish in second place.
According to Rio Ferdinand, Manchester City could also be sorely affected by the fact that a crucial squad player like Julian Alvarez has left the club to join Atletico Madrid — handing Arsenal the advantage in the title race.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Ferdinand said about the £82 million (Sky Sports) man’s exit: “One reason, at the moment I’m saying Arsenal are above City as well, [Julian] Alvarez’s gone. Huge, huge input. Huge input in terms of goals. Important goals, 20 plus goals off the bench a lot of the time.”
“So when you have someone like that who’s so impactful, who’s going to be that guy this season?”
Why Man City will not severely miss Julian Alvarez
While Alvarez did score 19 and 17 goals in his two seasons at City, it is important to remember that his goal tallies in the Premier League in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 campaigns were nine and 11 respectively.
Considering Phil Foden scored 19 goals in the league last season, he could produce similar numbers once again.
Erling Haaland could also surpass his tally of 27 from the previous campaign where he was also sidelined with injury for a significant chunk.
Kevin De Bruyne starting the season being fully-fit will also mean there are likely to be more goalscoring chances created for the entirety of the team to feed upon.
Additionally, De Bruyne is also a player who does chip in with goals.
Similarly, Bernardo Silva has also averaged six league goals in his last three campaigns.
Considering Alvarez did not played a pivotal role in either of City’s league titles that he lifted, his exit would not be the primary reason why his former club loses out on the coveted crown to Arsenal.
