Pep feels the heat from his London rivals

NORTH London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will both have the chance to pile the pressure on Pep Guardiola by leap-frogging his Manchester City side at the top of the Premier League table today.

The Gunners, level on points with City, are at home to struggling Middlesbrough while Spurs, a point behind, travel to Bournemouth.

City, still smarting from Wednesday’s 4-0 Champions League loss away to manager Guardiola’s former club, Barcelona, are not in the mix until tomorrow when they face Southampton at Eastlands. Should Arsenal and Tottenham both slip up, City could still yield top spot to Liverpool if the Merseysiders, currently two points off the summit following their goalless draw with Manchester United, beat West Bromwich Albion at Anfield on Saturday.

Arsenal fresh from their 6-0 thrashing of Bulgaria’s Ludogorets 6-0 in the Champions League in midweek, with Mesut Ozil scoring a hat-trick are now unbeaten in 11 matches.

Tottenham face a potentially tricky trip to south coast side Bournemouth, who’ve won plaudits for the quality of their football under young English manager Eddie Howe.

Guardiola won his first 10 games as City manager but the club have now gone four games without a victory, the last a 1-1 draw against Everton last Saturday.

Southampton, by contrast, were unlucky to lose 1-0 to Inter Milan in the Europa League on Thursday after manager Claude Puel made several changes to the side that beat Burnley 3-1.

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, returns to former club Chelsea tomorrow, fresh from guiding the Red Devils to a 4-1 Europa League win over Fenerbahce. Chelsea will look to carry on from their 3-0 win over faltering Premier League champions Leicester.

Despite their domestic problems, Leicester maintained their perfect record in the Champions League with a 1-0 win over Copenhagen on Tuesday.

Foxes manager Claudio Ranieri, whose side next play Crystal Palace, explained the difference in form by saying: “You spend a lot of energy, mental energy, in the Champions League. When you come back a little more down, it’s normal.”

Bottom-of-the-table, Sunderland, go in search of their first league win this season at West Ham today, with fellow strugglers Swansea at home to Watford.

Stoke travel to Hull and Burnley are at home to Everton. Fixtures: Today: Arsenal v Middlesbrough, Bournemouth v Tottenham, Burnley v Everton, Hull v Stoke, Leicester v Crystal Palace, Liverpool v West Brom, Swansea v Watford, West Ham v Sunderland.

Tomorrow: Chelsea v Manchester United, Manchester City v Southampton. — AFP