Arsenal Premier League title U-turn confirmed after just one gameweek

The Gunners won 3-0 at Emirates Stadium against Championship winners Coventry City on Friday night, with Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard scoring their goals. Mikel Arteta was able to substitute Christos Tzolis, Declan Rice, Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori and Saka in the aftermath of their third.

City, meanwhile, came from behind at home to beat Bournemouth. It was their defenders, Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol, who cancelled out Marcus Tavernier's opener to win Enzo Maresca 's competitive debut.

Allardyce highlighted the big change from Pep Guardiola as part of his new reasoning. The former Premier League manager told Footy Accumulators' podcast, No Tippy Tappy Football : "There's no guarantee Arsenal win the Premier League, but there's no challenger to them this season.

"I initially said Manchester City would win the title, but thinking about it a little bit more, it's a big change of manager that they've had to go through. I now think Arsenal will do it."

Kevin Nolan also appeared on the podcast. He spoke about Bruno Guimaraes, who did not feature against Coventry due to injury.

The player-turned-pundit is a former Newcastle United captain, like the Brazil international. He said: "I think the signing of Bruno Guimaraes adds something to Arsenal that they haven't got.

This introductory offer saves £384 compared to the standard price, with every package also providing 100 regular channels alongside free Netflix and discovery+ subscriptions.

"They could play him and Declan Rice as the two number eights, then have a single six – whether that be Martin Zubimendi or Myles Lewis-Skelly. Bruno tends to occupy that right-hand side too, whereas Rice prefers operating on the left, so I think that balances things very nicely; it's a really good signing."

Lewis-Skelly started ahead of Zubimendi on Friday. Odegaard started - and scored - in Guimaraes' enforced absence.

Mikel Arteta said of the summer signing afterwards: "We expect him not to be out for weeks. Let's see how he evolves this week - he wanted to carry on (against Man City), and that's when you start to understand the character of the player, but I don't expect that to be a big issue."

Speaking before the match about retaining the title, Arsenal's manager said: "It is an opportunity that we have. I have no question that our players have that desire and the ambition to do that. Now it's something that we have to earn and do daily."

All the best news, features, updates and analysis from Tom Canton and more straight to your Inbox!

Yours in just two simple steps.

FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE! Latest Gunners news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page