Five-time Premier League champion Wayne Rooney claimed that there would likely be “a change of manager” at Arsenal if Mikel Arteta fails to win this year’s title.

The Gunners have finished second under the Spaniard’s watch in each of the previous three seasons. The 2020 FA Cup secured inside the opening seven months of his tenure remains the only trophy Arteta has won while at the Arsenal helm, yet the start to the current Premier League campaign bodes well.

Arsenal lead the league after nine games and, crucially, have opened up a seven-point gap over reigning champions Liverpool who continue to splutter through their title defence. Serial winners Manchester City are six points adrift while Bournemouth (four points back), Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland (both five) make up Arsenal’s closest challengers.

This surge up the table—which ignores some of the subtleties around the team’s continued struggles to create open-play chances—has prompted many to begin chiselling a capital “A” on the Premier League trophy.

“The squad is good enough now and I think they’ve had the experiences which have got them close, but I think they’re ready for it,” Rooney mused on his self-titled podcast following Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace.

Yet, the favourites tag comes with its own pressure. “If they don’t win it now, you’d probably see a change of manager,” Rooney predicted.

Arteta currently has an Arsenal contract which stretches to 2027. There has not been a whisper from those inside the club that the former captain has any intention of leaving north London before then. In stark contrast, Arteta was instrumental in the process behind extending the contracts of Gabriel and William Saliba until the summer of 2030 presumably under the assumption that he will remain at the club himself.

Gary Neville: This Has Got to Be Arsenal’s Year

Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze, Jurriën Timber
Eberechi Eze fired Arsenal four points clear in the Premier League title race. | Henry Nicholls/AFP.Getty Images

Rooney’s former Mancheser United teammate Gary Neville shared his belief that this was Arsenal’s title to lose. “This has got to be them, hasn’t it?” he asked himself on another podcast named after the lead protagonist.

“This is the fourth season on the bounce that I’ve had them to win the league, but they’re not necessarily miles better, they’re repeating their levels of consistency, and that’s all they’re going to have to do this year to win the league.”

While Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola predicted that Arsenal and Liverpool (and one mysterious third contender he declined to name) would not drop many points this season, Neville argued that the Gunners wouldn’t have to rewrite the record books to claim a first league title in 21 years.

“They’re not going to have to go and get 100 points, they’re not going to have to get even 90 or 95 points to win the league, mid-80s, high 80s will win them this title, and they can do that,” Neville claimed.

“I mentioned before about the other teams [being] inconsistent and unreliable, that’s not this Arsenal team. They’re very reliable. You can trust them. The way in which they defend is fantastic. They’re all around each other. They don’t concede goals. They’ve got a threat up front in multiple areas.

“They’ve not got a sensational centre forward, but they’ve got a battering ram up there as honest as a day’s long, and that can work for them. They’ve got [Eberechi] Eze, they’ve got so they’ve got [Noni] Madueke, [Gabriel] Martinelli, [Leandro] Trossard, lots of players who can contribute goals. They’ve got [Declan] Rice who can obviously deliver in set pieces. They’ve got four fantastic fullbacks and three excellent centre-backs.”

Now they’ve also got the new pressure of holding onto first place for the next seven months.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mikel Arteta Receives Surprise Sack Verdict From Wayne Rooney.