Arsenal have been 'semi-handed' the Premier League as quadruple hopes rubbished

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Michael Owen believes Arsenal have been "semi-handed" the Premier League in what has been an uncompetitive year with their main rivals unable to mount a challenge.

The Gunners are seeking to end a run of three successive second place finishes and are well placed to win the title for the first time since 2004. Arsenal's win last weekend came 24 hours before Manchester City were held by Tottenham - giving them a six-point lead at the top.

Pep Guardiola's side have failed to take advantage when Arsenal have dropped points - and Owen has suggested that the Gunners themselves will not amass a huge total even if they end up being champions.

He told talkSPORT : "I don’t think there’s anybody good enough to compete with them this season, even though I don’t think the points total is going to be that good.

"I think the only teams that could have beaten them at the start of the season were Liverpool and Manchester City, who are obviously faltering. So I think Arsenal certainly will have won it, but they’ve been semi-handed it. I think nobody’s put much pressure on them, so I think the league is nearly wrapped up."

Arsenal have won 16 of their 24 games and have 53 points to their name. If they continued at that rate that would finish the campaign with 83 points. That would be the lowest haul by a Premier League winner since Leicester claimed the title in 2016 and some 17 points off the record, held by City.

When asked if he believes that Arsenal will win the quadruple this season, Owen was emphatic in his response: "No, I don’t think so but I think they are special, they’re a very strong side, they’re very efficient. I think they could win the Carabao Cup, absolutely they could and then the other two are going to be tough.

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"All the other teams are going to be focusing on the FA Cup even more now because the league is almost over. It’s going to salvage their season so they’ll be putting strong teams out. Then there’s the Champions League , that could be anybody’s, that’s really open this year."

Arsenal became the first side in the newly revamped Champions League to win all games to begin with, seeing off fellow European heavyweights Bayern Munich . They've also booked their spot in the Carabao Cup final, where they'll face either City or Newcastle .

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