Micah Richards makes Premier League title race prediction that Man City fans won't like

Micah Richards has made a prediction about the Premier League title race that Manchester City fans won’t like.

Sunday was full of twists for the Premier League title race, with Liverpool losing 1-0 at Anfield to Crystal Palace, before Arsenal fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Champions League-chasing Aston Villa.

The Liverpool and Arsenal losses mean that reigning champions City, who dispatched Luton 5-1 on Saturday, have taken a two-point lead at the summit with just six games remaining.

However, former City defender Richards, who happens to be a boyhood Arsenal fan, insisted the title race was far from over despite Pep Guardiola’s side’s favourable run-in.

Speaking on the Rest is Football, Richards said: “Two weeks ago I was doing Sky and basically Liverpool got a good result and everyone was saying they were going to win the league.

“I still think there’s going to be another twist before the end of the season. City have a history of going on big runs - we know that. But they’ve got Real Madrid midweek - we don’t know what the outcome will be from that game.

“Aston Villa are a better squad now. Spurs are a better squad now. Man City have still got to go to Spurs away, which has been a bogey team for them for many years.

“It's exciting and it’s interesting. I know the big story was the title race but as Alan [Shearer] said, Palace were outstanding and so were Aston Villa.”

Arteta insisted Arsenal must keep believing after their Premier League loss to Villa (Getty)

Mikel Arteta insisted that Arsenal must “keep believing” they can still win the Premier League for the first time in two decades, despite their defeat to Villa.

While acknowledging their fate was out of their hands, Arteta said: “That’s the reality right now. We knew that this moment could come and now it’s about reacting and keep ­believing.

“We had one of the best perfor­mances in the first half that we have had this season by far against a really good team.

“It should have been three or four but it didn’t happen and momentum shifted in the second half and we conceded two very poor goals. Now is the moment to stand up as a leader and a character to make yourself count. Now it’s a big test for us.”

Topics: Premier League, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Micah Richards, Aston Villa

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.