Arsenal can prove Liverpool star wrong and put Man City to bed along with bottlers label

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Arsenal have had to deal with accusations of bottling it over the past few years, but if they don't get over the line from here they'll face heat, the like of which they've not experienced before.

The festive period could not have gone any better. They hammered Aston Villa , a coming force in the title race, and have watched on as Manchester City dropped six points in the past week following three successive draws.

It means a win on Thursday night over Liverpool would see them open up an eight-point lead at the top. No Arsenal side in the Premier League has ever been that far clear at this stage of the season, not even The Invincibles.

And yet Dominik Szoboszlai, one of only two men to score a match-winner against the Gunners this term, believes the north Londoners are not champions elect .

The Hungary midfielder said: "It's a long way (to go). The Premier League is not easy. You don't win it by January. So I don't think we are playing against the champions. They're playing against the champions. And that's probably (something) they know as well, we know as well."

Well, if that doesn't stoke the fire, not much will. Arsenal were accused of becoming a passive team when they lost at Anfield at the start of the campaign. They had the game by the scruff of the neck but lacked the ruthless edge to secure a statement win over a rival.

Since then the tides have turned. The Reds have fallen off a cliff and Arsenal have become a winning machine. Since going down at Anfield in August Mikel Arteta's side have won 13 of their 17 league games. Villa are the only other side, bar Liverpool , to beat the Gunners.

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So all the signs do, contrary to what Szoboszlai thinks, suggest that Arsenal are champions in waiting. Few teams blow it from these kinds of positions. Arsenal fans who can hark back to the Highbury days will remember spurning a five-point lead in March when they missed out in 2003, so may not be feeling as confident as the numbers suggest.

This current group will carry emotional baggage from being chased down by City in more recent times. Twice Pep Guardiola's side mounted late charges to eventually overcome the north London outfit. There had been talk of that happening again and they did close to within two points.

But draws with Sunderland , Chelsea and now Brighton mean Arsenal are firmly in the driving seat and they're looking over their shoulder at a team who don't look like they have a 10-game winning run in them. Maybe Guardiola himself knows that deep down right now.

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There's just under half the season left to play, but the City boss admits letting six points go a miss means you can't be dreaming of title success. “Of course if you don’t win games, you cannot think about these things," he said.

And so over to Arsenal. They have their foot on the throat of their rivals and it feels as though they've spent the best part of four years building up to this moment. If they don't seize the opportunity the narrative around them that still exists will persist.

They're facing a Liverpool team that have recovered from their monumental drop in form and now look dangerous once again. They're unbeaten in eight and still have the weapons to prove a hand full for the league leaders.

Thursday, January 8 may well serve as the night that Arsenal went eight clear and, perhaps, never looked back. Or it may well be the game that showed City this title is still there to be won, against a team who just can't put that nagging feeling to bed.

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