Pep Guardiola has dominated English football since he arrived in the Premier League. He has won six out of a possible nine Premier League titles, including his debut season. Two of those titles came with his former assistant, Mikel Arteta, leading Arsenal as Guardiola’s closest competitor. After a turbulent season in 2024/25, Manchester City are back, and are looking to beat the Gunners to the title for the third time in four years. Guardiola and Arteta’s respective teams are a class above in the Premier League this season, as the 2025/26 title fight is setting up to be an epic continuation of what will soon be known as a legendary trilogy.
Liverpool are of course the reigning champions. However, after four losses from 10 games, they entered the Etihad Stadium needing to put in a statement performance to show they will compete again this season. Instead, they were outclassed in every sense. While fans of the 20-time champions will correctly argue that Virgil Van Dijk’s equaliser was incorrectly disallowed, that does not change the fact that this game was the culmination of Man City showing they are back to their best, and that Liverpool do not have the energy for back-to-back runs at the title. The hosts first goal proved this as Nico O’Reilly was backed into his own corner, before doing incredibly well to turn out of trouble and retain possession. From there, after some great play in tight space, every outfield player for City touched the ball, with the last being Erling Haaland as his header hit the back of the net. Beating the Liverpool press from that position was the team we are used to seeing under Pep Guardiola. Along with that, players like Jeremy Doku and Nico Gonzalez, who have been solid so far for the club, showed on Sunday that they are ready to take the step up to spearhead the revival of Pep’s team, alongside Haaland of course.
However, we must forget that, as good as Man City were against Liverpool, they are still in second place, and will be for at least one more set of fixtures, as Arteta’s Arsenal sit atop the table after 11 games with a four point lead. After 10 straight wins, and eight consecutive clean sheets, the Gunners were finally broken down against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light., drawing 2-2. While many are overreacting to the league leaders dropping two points in stoppage time, Arsenal have still been the best team in England so far this season. One poor defensive performance doesn’t change the fact that this team will be incredibly hard to break down for the rest of the season, and going forward they pose a threat from set pieces and from open play, despite what narratives may suggest. Arteta’s men sit first in the Premier League and have a perfect record in the Champions League despite injuries to several attackers. Once the Gunners are fully fit up front, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them go on a similar run to the second half of the 2023/24 season, where from the turn of the new year, in 18 Premier League games, Arsenal scored 54 goals and picked up 49 out of a possible 54 points.
Of course, as good as Arsenal were in the latter half of the 23/24 season, it wasn’t enough to win the league, because that title belonged to Man City, who dropped just six points from the turn of the year that season, enough to win a fourth straight title. City’s win against Liverpool was a sign that their ruthlessness is back, and that they can play their football against any team in the world. Nico Gonzalez looks the real deal in midfield, Phil Foden is looking like he may be back to his best, Jeremy Doku is going to be a problem for right backs all season long, and Erling Haaland is on track to beat his own single season goal record in the Premier League.
Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp suffered two heart-breaking title losses after being tremendous all season, but managed a title in between. While Arteta’s men haven’t quite yet reached the heights of those Liverpool teams, they have suffered the same crushing feeling of losing out to City twice, and this season they have been the better team so far, just like Klopp’s title-winning side early on in the 2019/20 season. But if Arsenal want to be as dominant as that Liverpool team was, they can’t afford many more mistakes and need to put their foot on the pedal now. Two seasons ago when they lost the title, it may have been the home defeat to Aston Villa that secured their fate, but the slow start was what really hurt the Gunners. Liverpool in 19/20 were ruthless up until the pandemic hit, by which point a 25-point lead had all but secured the title. Given that Pep’s team are back to their elite levels, no such gap will appear at the top of the table this season. However, mistakes at this point in the year for Arsenal will mean that any late season slip ups akin to the loss to Villa in 2024, will see Pep Guardiola sweep what is soon to be a trilogy of title fights against Mikel Arteta.