Gary Neville makes fresh Arsenal title claim after Man City destroy Chelsea

Gary Neville has doubled down on his prediction that Arsenal will win the Premier League title and ‘crawl’ over the finishing line, despite Manchester City gaining further ground.

Arsenal’s shock home defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday provided Pep Guardiola’s relentless machine with an opportunity to narrow the gap at Stamford Bridge just 24 hours later.

With the scent of blood in the water, City turned in a ruthless second half display, capped by goals from Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku that helped put the seal on a comfortable 3-0 win.

This Sunday’s summit meeting between the top two at the Etihad now has the air of a title decider and given City hold the momentum, they will start as favourites to record a victory that would firmly turn the balance in their favour.

Neville, however, insists there is no need to panic and believes the setback against the Cherries is the sort of setback that can happen in a run-in and represents the sort of blow Arsenal must learn to recover from.

The former Manchester United defender, who won eight Premier League titles during his Old Trafford career, tipped the Gunners to end their 22-year wait to be crowned domestic champions and he sees no reason why they cannot still fulfil their objectives.

He told Sky Sports: ‘I have thought for a number of years with this Arsenal team that they’ve got to go and win a game that shakes the world. They’ve got to go to City next week and win.

‘It doesn’t matter how it happens – they could get battered in the first half, but be goalless half-time, but then go and nick one with 15 minutes to go, and all of a sudden the lights come on and you’re nine points clear.

‘That’s what Arsenal have got to believe this week.

‘The problem they’ve got is they haven’t got anybody of experience in the club of winning a title. Gabriel Jesus maybe, but I don’t think he’s the type of player that’s going to translate that to a dressing room.

‘He’s a good player, but he doesn’t seem to be that person who can really set the tone.

‘Mikel Arteta is always looking to try and find a way of how to gain an advantage and he’s got to try and find something this week.’

He continued: ‘I do feel now is the time for Arsenal.

‘I’m not going to go and say it’s now or never, but it does feel a bit like that.

‘If you’ve had five years of trying to climb that mountain, and you’ve just failed at that final hurdle each time, there has to be a moment where you get over the line.

‘Arsenal will crawl over the line. I don’t think they’ll get over the line easily, they might even lose next week, but I do think they’ve probably got a little bit of a cushion.

‘Manchester City aren’t perfect, and Arsenal will just get there, but they’re in a lot more trouble than they were at 12.30pm on Saturday, when they were just about to kick off against Bournemouth.’