Arsenal plot long stay at Premier League summit

LONDON: Arsenal are back on top of the Premier League with ambitions to stay there as they host Wolves this weekend while champions Manchester City play faltering Tottenham.

Newcastle take on Manchester United in a clash of two teams with high ambitions of their own while Chelsea face Brighton, still searching for consistency.

AFP Sport picks out three talking points ahead of the action.

Arsenal’s last-gasp 1-0 win at Brentford last week, which took them back to the top of table, was their fifth Premier League victory by a single goal this season.

The Gunners lack the fluidity they showed in the 2022/23 campaign and attacking numbers are down but former Manchester United defender Gary Neville believes they are now better equipped to win the league.

“Perfect, pretty football is unlikely to win the league unless it’s combined with a doggedness and resilience,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Arsenal are better this year in these areas and the football will come in due course.”

But former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, a Sky Sports pundit alongside Neville, believes Mikel Arteta’s team need to win games more convincingly.

“If Arsenal continue how they are, if this is the Arsenal we’re going to see this season, I don’t think they can win the league,” he told Sky.

He added: “So many games are going to the wire and sometimes that can go against you.... Those games that finish 1-0 can easily go 1-0 the other way.”

Arsenal smashed Lens 6-0 in the Champions League in midweek in a reminder of what can happen when everything clicks.

Early pacesetters Tottenham desperately need to arrest their slide after three straight defeats but champions Manchester City are their next port of call.

Ange Postecoglou’s