Cesc Fabregas makes Premier League top 4 prediction, rates Arsenal's chances this season

Former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas has tipped Mikel Arteta's side to win the Premier League this season. The current Como boss spent nine seasons at the Emirates between 2003 and 2012.

The Gunners have come close to ending Manchester City's Premier League stranglehold, finishing right behind them in the last two seasons. Arteta's side came especialy close last season - keeping alive the title race till the last day - before City finished two points in front.

Ahead of the start of the new campaign, Fabregas waxed lyrical about his compatriot on the Planet Premier League podcast (via Metro):

"I really like Mikel because he’s a hungry manager, a very smart boy, intelligent and tactically he’s good. He has people around him that work very, very well.

"The thing that I see between City and Arsenal is that Arsenal is a young team, full of hunger and they just keep growing. You can see they are getting better, getting better every year."

Fabregas predicted that City would find itincreasingly tough to stay at the top, with the Gunners expected to knock them off their pedestal:

"With Man City, I just feel that it’s very, very difficult to get better than what they did with winning the treble, four times in the the Premier League in a row, so I can see them only going down.

"I can only see them going down or staying the same, and this is the thing that makes me feel that Arsenal could potentially make it happen. I have to be honest: I said the same thing that I’m saying now last year."

Predicting his former side to finish above City, Liverpool and Chelsea - in that order - the Como boss concluded:

"But I just see, continuously, Arsenal growing and growing, and I can feel that this could be the year for them. Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea (is my predicted top four)."

The Gunners get their Premier League campaign underway at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday (August 17).

---

Cesc Fabregas comments on Emil Smith Rowe's Arsenal departure

Cesc Fabregas expressed his disappointment with midfielder Emil Smith Rowe's departure from Arsenal this summer. The 24-year-old has moved to Fulham on a five-year deal.

In six seasons at the club, Smith Rowe scored 18 times across competitions but slipped down the pecking order in the last few campaigns due to a combination of injuries and loss of form.

Nevertheless, prasing the Englishman for his attributes in the attacking third, Fabregas said (as per the aforementioned source):

"I really like this player. I’m a big fan of him. He’s so powerful when he drives the ball, he has this eye, the smell, to score goals and to be in the right position at the right time. He does passing. He understands the third man very well."

Meanwhile, Fabregas started his Como stint with a 4-3 shootout loss to Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia first round after a 1-1 draw.