Micah Richards claims Liverpool game will decide Arsenal’s title race with Manchester City

Micah Richards believes Liverpool will effectively hand Arsenal the Premier League title if the reigning champions beat Manchester City next weekend.

Arsenal strengthened their grip on the Premier League trophy at the weekend after thumping Leeds United 4-0, ending a run of three league games without a win.

The Gunners drew with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest before losing to Manchester United in a wobble that left many fans questioning whether Arsenal were set to surrender their advantage in the title race.

But Mikel Arteta’s side provided an emphatic response at Elland Road, putting four goals past Leeds to briefly go seven points clear of Man City and Aston Villa in second and third.

Arsenal’s title rivals had the chance to cut the gap in their games in hand on Sunday but City blew a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Tottenham and Villa lost 1-0 to ten-man Brentford.

Given Arsenal’s lead and the inconsistent form of Man City and Aston Villa, both Richards and Gary Lineker expect the Premier League trophy to head to the Emirates Stadium for the first time since 2004.

Richards still gives City hope of reeling in Arsenal but says he will ‘concede the title race is over’ if his former club fail to beat Liverpool at Anfield next Sunday.

Asked whether he still believed Manchester City could win the Premier League, Richards said on The Rest is Football podcast: ‘I’m still optimistic until next week.

‘I think Liverpool are going to cause Man City problems. If City play like they did in the second half at Tottenham, Liverpool will cause them all sorts of problems.

‘As soon as teams raise the tempo and energy against Man City it’s stark. Man City didn’t know how to deal with it.

‘I wouldn’t rule them out yet but I think it’s the Liverpool game. You look at the game in April between Arsenal and Man City, if there’s three points in it then that’s the game.

‘But if Man City don’t win next week and Arsenal beat Sunderland at home, that’s when I’ll concede the title race is over.

‘It hurt me today watching Man City because normally they have the answers.’

Discussing Arsenal’s title aspirations and whether they have enough firepower to become Premier League champions, Richards added: ‘I thought they needed a striker to get them the title and I wasn’t sure [Viktor] Gyokeres was that guy.

‘But other teams around them aren’t doing what they should be doing so things are falling into Arsenal’s favour.

‘Now with the players coming back they could just share out the goals so I believe it now and obviously they’re in pole position.’

Lineker, meanwhile, says it is ‘really, really hard to see beyond Arsenal’ in the title race as Manchester City are ‘well off where they were’.

‘Looking at the title race now, it’s really, really hard to see beyond Arsenal,’ the ex-England striker said.

‘It’s hard to understand Man City’s drop off, they’ve spent a lot of money obviously but it’s not gelling.

‘Arsenal got that really good win but even on their bad days they generally grind out results, they don’t concede many goals and they will still cause teams problems.

‘Looking at that lead and Man City’s inconsistency, it’s hard to see City going on a run and winning every game. I can’t see that happening.

‘I’m not saying it’s done but I find it very, very hard to imagine Man City coming back from this. It would need Arsenal to drop quite a lot of points and City to win pretty much 90% of their games.

‘But Man City are well off where they were, they really are, and Arsenal have a reasonable run of fixtures coming up.

‘They haven’t been free-flowing but have still ground out results so what happens when they start to flow? It’s a really good sign for Arsenal.’

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