Manchester City may be leading the Premier League after three matches in the 2026\/27 season, but Erling Haaland still sees Arsenal as the side best placed to go all the way.<\/p>\n
Haaland supplied the decisive goal in City\u2019s 1-0 win over Coventry City on Saturday, extending his strong start to the campaign with a third strike in as many appearances. Even with that form, he pointed to Arsenal as the team with the clearer title case after their 2-1 victory over Chelsea on Sunday kept both clubs on maximum points.<\/p>\n
City sit first only because they have scored more goals than Mikel Arteta\u2019s side, yet Haaland believes the reigning champions remain ahead in the bigger picture. For him, the difference is experience. Arsenal, he argued, have a settled structure and familiarity across the pitch, while City are still taking shape under their new direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cArsenal have played together for a long time and have built this up over a longer period,\u201d Haaland said after the win against Coventry. \u201cA bit like City when I first joined. We\u2019re still in a kind of rebuilding phase, but the transfer window has been fantastic, I have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also stressed that City should draw motivation from Arsenal having ended a 22-year wait for the title by defeating them in Pep Guardiola\u2019s final season. \u201cWe should be angry, we should feel a fire inside our belly because it’s not good enough. It’s gone two years now [without winning the Premier League] it feels like forever.\u201d Haaland said in May. \u201cWe’re going to do everything we can, everyone that will be here next season, to win the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
His view reflects the reality at the club. Maresca is now in charge after the Guardiola era, and the squad has changed significantly over the last two years. Against Coventry, only Haaland, Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol and R\u00faben Dias were in the side that won City\u2019s last league title in 2023\/24.<\/p>\n
Five players in that lineup arrived after the calendar turned to 2026, while three others are still short of two full seasons at the club. Haaland said the club deserve credit for the quality and character they have added. \u201cWell done to the club and the people at the club,\u201d Haaland said. \u201cFirst and foremost, they\u2019ve brought in fantastic footballers, but also great people who fit in really well. So well done to the whole club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland says Arsenal remain the title favourites as City continue rebuilding under Maresca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238],"tags":[1836,59,180],"class_list":["post-19280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-featured","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}