Pep Guardiola is up to his usual media tricks, claiming Arsenal are one of the form teams right now, in their best moment for many years.

Arsenal prepare to face runaway league leaders Manchester City on Saturday, with the away side absolutely dominant of late.

City are eight points clear at the top, and they’ve won 10 Premier League matches in a row.

That’s before we look at their head-to-head record with Arsenal, which is totally dominant from 2017/18 onwards.

Aside from Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final victory in 2020, they’ve lost 11 games to Saturday’s visitors during that period.

Yet Pep Guardiola always has nice things to say about Arsenal, and his most recent press conference was no different.

“We play on January 1 against, maybe, right now one of the best teams on top form right now, Arsenal,” Guardiola said.

“Maybe we get them in their best moment in the last four, five, or six years – I’m sure everyone will agree with me.”

In fairness, it’s true that Arsenal are on a good run of form. The Gunners have won five in a row in all competitions, scoring 19 goals and conceding just two.

But none of their opponents were Manchester City, and West Ham United were perhaps the only side Arsenal weren’t completely expected to beat anyway.

Essentially, there’s no doubt that City go into the weekend as strong favourites to win. It’s just not Guardiola’s style to admit that.