Danny Murphy says only one team can stop Arsenal winning the Premier League

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta (Picture: Getty) Danny Murphy views Arsenal as clear favourites to win the Premier League and says only one team can stop the Gunners from retaining their title. Arsenal underlined their status as Premier League title favourites with an emphatic 3-0 win over Manchester City in Sunday’s Community Shield. ‘It is always hard to call it now, especially when it feels like all the top teams have a lot of business to do before the transfer window shuts, but I can’t look past Arsenal as champions,’ Murphy told BBC Sport.

Arsenal are favourites to win the Premier League (Picture: Getty) ‘The main reasons being the momentum and confidence they will have from winning the Premier League already, but also the consistency of having the same manager and same players and just sprinkling even more quality on top. ‘They have not lost any of their best players and they have got a group who know what the manager expects from them and are completely on board with it. But Murphy believes Manchester City will once again be Arsenal’s biggest rival for the title in Enzo Maresca’s first season at the Etihad Stadium. ‘I look at the firepower Man City have got and, whoever the manager is and whoever they are playing against, they are still going to be able to score a lot of goals and win a lot of games,’ Murphy said.

Danny Murphy's Premier League top-four prediction Arsenal Manchester City Liverpool Manchester United ‘I would still have them as being Arsenal’s nearest rivals.’ As for his former club Liverpool, Murphy cannot see Andoni Iraola’s side mounting a genuine title challenge but believes they will secure a top-four finish. ‘Liverpool might need a bit more time before they are challenging for the title again,’ Murphy added. New Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca (Picture: PA) ‘I am also not sure whether they think they have already got enough to replace Mohamed Salah by bringing in Victor Munoz and maybe giving Rio Ngumoha a bigger role, or whether they are really going to go for Paris St-Germain’s Bradley Barcola, or someone like him, in the next few days.’ Murphy also named newly-promoted Ipswich Town as his ‘surprise package’ in the Premier League. ‘I am not talking about the top four, but Ipswich might surprise a few people and, out of the the ones who have come up, be the team who don’t struggle,’ he said. ‘They have spent quite a lot, and brought in about a dozen players, like Sunderland did last year, and again they have brought in a similar type of player too, with a lot of athleticism. ‘Their manager Gary O’Neil did all right at Wolves and Bournemouth and he will be as well-equipped as ever to know which games to go after, and when to dig in.’ For more stories like this, check our sport page.