Pep Guardiola says the difference between Arsenal and Manchester City in the Premier League table is nothing, ahead of the match between the two sides on Sunday.

Manchester City currently sit five points clear at the top of the table, and nine points ahead of the Gunners in fifth place, but Guardiola says it’s far too soon to be writing Arsenal off, explaining (via Sky Sports): “We are in November. They won the FA Cup last season. The prestige of the club, the Emirates Stadium – of course they are a contender.

“It is nine points. The difference (between us) is nothing, believe me. At the least maybe (we could) leave Arsenal 12 points behind. It is a massive game for us for many circumstances, starting from the way we want to play, to try to win the game.”

The situation at the end of the day could either be much improved or relatively disastrous for Arsenal. This is a real six-pointer.

12 points isn’t an insurmountable gap, especially when the Gunners have been that far behind at Christmas and still won the league before, but it’s not the sort of gap you want to be building up so early on in the season. Nor is it a lead you’d trust this side to chase down.

Meanwhile, six points really is almost nothing at this stage, so an unlikely win would bring the title race back to life.

Nonetheless, the difference in quality between the two teams on the pitch has been massive so far, and that’ll need to change drastically if Arsenal are to have any chance.

That makes Guardiola’s statement about the point difference between the two teams a bit simplistic.

However, we can always hope that the Arsenal that travelled to Stamford Bridge turns up on Sunday, rather than the one that went to Anfield.