‘Whoa’: Alan Shearer left shocked after Gary Lineker makes ‘big’ Arsenal prediction

Gary Lineker has made a bold prediction for Arsenal’s Premier League title defence.

The reigning champions got off to the perfect start after a resounding 3-0 victory over Coventry City on the opening night.

It’s still so early, but Arsenal have positioned themselves as strong favourites to win the league again.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football ahead of the new season, Lineker gave his verdict on how Arsenal will fare.

“I think Arsenal are the team to beat,” he said. “Even though some people say it’s easier to win your first title than retain it, I disagree. I think they’ll retain it.

“I think not only the fact that they’ve added to where they were last season, when they won the league.

“And they’ve added well, but I also think that pretty much all the big teams around them are in transition.

Lineker then went bold on how comfortable he thinks it will be for Mikel Arteta’s side.

“So I’m actually going to go Arsenal by at least 10 points,” he said.

Alan Shearer was left pretty shocked: “Whoa, that’s big.”

And he’s right. That is big, and a margin we don’t often see.

The last time a Premier League team won the title by 10 points or more was the 2019–20 season, when Liverpool won the league by 18 points.

In fact, in the last 20 seasons, a Premier League team has won the title by 10 points or more just five times.

Arsenal themselves have achieved it once. During the Invincibles season, Arsene Wenger’s side won the title by 11 points.

But with all the uncertainty surrounding the other top clubs, you can see the logic behind Lineker’s confidence.

Adding Bruno Guimaraes, Ezri Konsa, and possibly even Julian Alvarez to the team that won it by seven points last season, only strengthens that case.