Micah Richards insists ‘well-oiled machine’ Arsenal have a ‘strong case’ to win the Premier League and admits star defender Gabriel Maghalaes has proved him wrong.
The Gunners boast a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League after a dramatic weekend in which Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea all lost.
Defending champions Liverpool suffered their fourth successive league defeat, losing at Brentford, while Man City and Chelsea were beaten by Aston Villa and Sunderland respectively.
Arsenal took full advantage of their rivals slipping up by beating Crystal Palace and extending their lead at the top of the table to four points.
Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game, thumping home against his former club, while Arsenal kept their fifth successive clean sheet and tenth of the season.
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Richards is beginning to think Arsenal are destined to win the Premier League, having backed Liverpool to retain the title at the start of the season.
The former Premier League defender has been impressed by how Arsenal are ‘finding ways to win games’ and reserved special praise for defender Gabriel.
Richards admits he ‘wasn’t sure’ about Gabriel following his £27m move to the Emirates Stadium but has now been won over by a player who has been hailed as one of the best centre-backs in the world.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Richards said: ‘The game [Arsenal’s win over Crystal Palace] wasn’t a classic, was it?
‘I thought Palace did rather well on the first half, creating a few chances, but Arsenal just snuff them out and know how to kill a game. They’re so good at it.
‘Gabriel, what a player he is. I wasn’t sure about him at the start, he made a couple of mistakes I thought he looked a little clumsy.
‘But he’s now turned into an absolute machine. He’s so key from set-pieces, for and against. People are calling Arsenal Set-piece FC but it doesn’t matter, win the game however you need to win them, that’s the most important thing.
‘Arsenal are finding ways to win games and that’s why they have a strong case for winning the Premier League.
‘I never quite believed it with Liverpool’s squad and their transfer window but now I you look at Arsenal and they don’t give teams opportunities, they just don’t. They look like a well-oiled machine.’
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was keen to play down Arsenal’s advantage in the title race after the ‘massive win’ over London rivals Palace.
‘It’s a massive win because we knew the difficulty of it,’ Arteta said. ‘Big credit to Crystal Palace for the way they set up, they made it really difficult for us.
‘We found a way to score against a team really well organised. We didn’t score a second goal and when you don’t do that you are in danger. They are a super difficult side and we have restricted them to very little.’
On the title race, with Arsenal bidding to win the Premier League for the first time since 2004, Arteta added: ‘It’s very early, we’re still in October.
‘The emotional state is really high but there are a lot of thing to get better. Let’s try and recover for Wednesday [Brighton in the Carabao Cup].’
After facing Brighton in the cup, Arsenal return to Premier League action at the weekend against Burnley, who have won their last two games.
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