Wayne Rooney feels Manchester City have a mental edge over Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Man City beat Chelsea 3-0 on Sunday to close the gap on the Gunners, who lost to Bournemouth a day earlier, to six points.
Pep Guardiola’s team host Arsenal later this week. Should they win that, City will be three points behind the Gunners with a game in hand.
Opta’s supercomputer still makes Arsenal the big favourites to claim the title, with their probability of doing so standing at 87%, with City’s chances rated at 13%.
We keep fighting
0-3 @okx pic.twitter.com/Z6m7alqbtE
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 12, 2026
However, former Manchester United star Rooney feels City hold an advantage.
“I think City will have the edge on that, just purely the manager and players they’ve got. They will be able to stay a little calmer than the Arsenal players,” he said on The Wayne Rooney Show.
“They will be worried because when you go on a run and lose a few games, you start thinking ‘where’s the next goal, the next win going to come from?’ That negative mindset really has an impact on your performance.
“Whether the fans like that type of football or not, they have to do anything to stop City winning. They need to be resilient enough to stop City from scoring.”
After only suffering three defeats in their opening 49 matches of this season in all competitions (W37 D9), Arsenal have since lost three of their last four (W1).
On the other hand, City have lost just one of their last 19 Premier League games (W12 D6) and are unbeaten in their last nine (W6 D3), their joint-longest unbeaten streak of the campaign.
When playing within their final 10 games across the last five Premier League seasons (since 2021-22), City have lost just one of 43 matches, winning 32 times (D10).
