Darren Bent has tipped Arsenal to finish ahead of Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, claiming that his beloved Gunners could finish as high as third in the standings.
Mikel Arteta’s side kick off their Premier League campaign with a difficult visit to Crystal Palace tonight.
Victory would certainly enhance the feeling that Arsenal – who have spent more than anyone else in England this summer – are finally ready to qualify for the Champions League, having narrowly missed out on it last term.
It was their North London rivals Tottenham who pipped them to fourth last time around, in agonising circumstances.
Spurs, meanwhile, are tipped to be the dark horses of the division this season, with Antonio Conte, clearly a world-class manager, enjoying a brilliant recruitment drive in recent months and strenghtening every area of the squad.
Nevertheless, Bent, a diehard Arsenal supporter, believes that his former club will drop out of the top four in favour of his boyhood one.
He told talkSPORT: “I’ve gone City to win it, Liverpool second, Arsenal third and Chelsea fourth. I like what I’ve seen in pre-season [from Arsenal]. Tottenham fifth, United sixth.”
It’s a relatively gutsy prediction from Bent, it has to be said.
Arsenal have definitely improved in a major way – well, on paper anyway – but by the same token, so have their North London rivals.
In addition to that, the Gunners are going to have Thursday – Sunday games every two weeks for the first half of the campaign due to Europa League commitments.
It’s a difficult schedule to manage and the last two times they had Europa League football they wound up finishing eighth in the Premier League.
Tottenham kick off their season with a visit of Southampton on Saturday.
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