Ken Early: City’s inability to hit their very top form should give Arsenal hope

Arsenal are five points clear at Christmas. Manchester City lost at home to Brentford. Last season Chelsea were one point ahead of City in second place. The season before Liverpool were five point clear of them. Erling Haaland is on course to break the Premier League goalscoring record. Manchester United have self-sabotaged with a poor start. Chelsea are searching for a system that works. Spurs are addicted to going two goals down in every match. City have scored 40 goals and conceded 14. They have a goal difference of +26. Their previous two teams won the league with goal differences of -35 and +37.

FSG bought Liverpool in 2010 for £300 million. They have won all the major trophies and turned Liverpool into one of the best teams in the world. John Henry has been a strong supporter of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules and the Super League. Henry and Glazers came up with Project Big Picture in 2020, but it failed. The Premier League was bought by Saudi Arabia in 2021. The club still needs Champions League participation to afford their expensive squad. It is getting harder to achieve qualification for that competition before a second trillionaire-owned club was welcomed to the scene.