Arsenal Midfield Star Claims Pressure Is On Chelsea and City For Title

Laurent Koscielny has claimed that the pressure is on Chelsea and Manchester City to win the title while Arsenal can continue their charge with little expectation.

After finishing fourth last year and beating Tottenham to Champions League qualification little was made of the Gunners' push for silverware as the current campaign began, particularly as Arsene Wenger stalled on signing any big names.

But when deadline day rolled around he smashed the club's transfer record to land Mesut Ozil and the midfielder appears to have been the missing spark in Arsenal's push toward the top of the table.

Currently the leaders in the race for the title the Gunners are one point clear of Manchester City and two of third-placed Chelsea. But Koscielny believes that if Arsene Wenger's squad continue as they have, proving their doubters wrong, they will have a lot less pressure in the coming months than their main competitors who are expected to lift trophies on a regular basis.

Koscielny told AP that the "pressure is on" City and Chelsea, explaining: "We are where we want to be," he said. "It is down to us to stay there, stay focused and stay united, keep fighting for each other, stay consistent and humble like in the first six months (of the season) and maybe it will be our year and we will win it.

"We can't play 100 per cent all the time in the way we play, so there will be some moments in some games where we lack quality, where it will be more difficult, where it won't be pretty football, but we stay strong, we graft and we never give up."

Arsenal face Coventry City on Friday night in the FA Cup and will follow that up with league games against Southampton and Crystal Palace. Wenger will be expecting to take maximum points before the side face title outsiders Liverpool in a match that could completely change the current top four.