Wayne Rooney believes Manchester City will have a psychological edge over Arsenal as the race for the Premier League title heats up.
Arsenal dropped points on Saturday, losing 2-1 at home to Bournemouth before City took advantage, closing the gap with a 3-0 win over Chelsea on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola’s side are six points behind Arsenal with a game in hand.
Former Manchester United and England forward Rooney said Arsenal will be “worried” about City.
“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,” Rooney said on the BBC’s 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.”
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City host Arsenal this Sunday in what is shaping up as a huge clash. Rooney said Arsenal might be happy with a point and may be forced to “play dirty.”
“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,” he said.
Tottenham relegation a “disaster”
Rooney also said some Tottenham players will be thinking about their futures given the club’s relegation battle.
Spurs are 18th in the table, two points from safety behind West Ham United and suffered their 16th defeat of the season to Sunderland on Sunday.
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“It will be a disaster for them if they do go [down]. I think that’s where some of those players probably are looking at it thinking if they go down they can move on and go to a different club,” Rooney said.
“If they don’t get back in the Premier League in the first year, that will be an absolute nightmare for them.”
