“Neither Manchester City nor Arsenal looked like champions”, and Pep says Liverpool are now favorites for the title

When Jurgen Klopp joked that he hoped both Manchester City and Arsenal would lose, perhaps his impossible wish came true.

City and the Gunners played a monotonous goalless draw at the Etihad Stadium in a match that promised a lot, but failed to live up to expectations with only three shots on goal between both Premier League heavyweights in the 90s.

The result leaves Liverpool, who beat Brighton Earlier on Sunday, in the title race as they top the Premier League standings, with a two-point lead over second-place Arsenal and a three-point lead over third-place Manchester City .

There are still nine games left to play for each team, but City manager Guardiola believes it is now the title Liverpool must lose.

“First is always the favourite,” Guardiola said when asked if Liverpool were the “clear favourite” to win the league.

“The second favorite is Arsenal and we are third… It's not in our hands. All we can do is think about Aston Villa (at home on Wednesday).

“Whenever we were leaders in the league, we were favorites. It was in our hands. Not anymore. It's simple.”

This is a view shared by talkSPORT's Adrian Durham, who claimed that neither City nor Arsenal have shown they have what it takes to win the league this season.

But former Arsenal player Perry Groves was not having it when he confronted the talkSPORT presenter live towards the end of the goalless draw.

Durham began: “This is what I think, I don't think Manchester City are what they were last season, we said it before the game.

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“Arsenal had a great opportunity to come here, make a big, bold statement in big neon letters and say: 'yes, we are the best team, even on your own ground we are the best team.'

“A draw at first glance might seem like a good result, but I think Arsenal's performance has been quite impressive.”

Groves responded: “The performance hasn't been amazing.

Durham chimed in: “No, they have! They've shown no creativity or attacking intent at all and that's not Arsenal.

Groves said: “It has been disappointing, not shocking.

Durham responded: “I was surprised.”

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Groves said: “Defensively, they've been very, very solid.”

Durham added: “I don't mean shock as a bad thing. I say that because it shocks me… I thought they were going to come here and prove that they were the best team in the country.

“My conclusion from this game is that none of these look like champions based on what we have seen today.

Groves said: “You've just changed like Crooky (Alex Crook) on a 90-minute basis, you could look back at the end of the season and say, 'that's where they won the title.'

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Durham then said: “John Stones and Kyle Walker are out, Nathan Ake comes off in the first half. That's Mikel Arteta's signal to really take the game to Man City and show them who's boss and he hasn't done that.”

Mikel Arteta admitted he couldn't say whether a draw would help Arsenal's cause but took a much more optimistic view when asked to assess his team's performance.

He said: “I think the context and the way we got here 11 months ago was different, but the difficulty is still the same.

“They are the best team in the world, in my opinion, by far. They have, by far, the best coach in the world. Catching up and trying to surpass them is the challenge ahead of us…

“I don't know (if a draw is good for the title race). You want to win the game. You prepare to win it. If you can't win it, make sure you tie. We did that.

“Eleven months ago we were here and the story was very different. We have to take steps as a team and today we did it. We still have many more to come…

“(He says) that we are improving and competing better and understanding how to play these games, but we have to take another step to win the championship. You have to come here and win.”