Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believes Manchester City and Arsenal are the two favourites to win this season’s Champions League.

Speaking after the Gunners’ 6-0 win over Lens midweek, Carragher said that the Gunners are probably the team likeliest to take Pep Guardiola’s side’s European crown:

“I think they [Arsenal] are contenders. They haven’t got that history that you can look back on in this competition of winning multiple-time European wins like Bayern Munich. I wouldn’t say Bayern Munich are a better team than Arsenal but there’s something about when you see Bayern Munich in Europe you feel like they could do it because they’ve been there before.”

“Arsenal haven’t got that aura but you’ve got to get it sometime. I think the competition right now, there’s only Manchester City who are better than Arsenal in this competition.”

The bookies say City will face a bigger threat from two other teams

The majority of bookmakers have made Arsenal fourth favourites to win the tournament, with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid expected to have a better chance of beating City.

Nearly every bookie has Bayern at 4/1 to lift their seventh European Cup, while Real are priced at either 13/2 or 6/1. City are currently the team to beat, though, with the likes of Sky Bet making them 2/1 to retain their European title come the final in June.

Carragher is making a bold statement

It has to be pointed out that Arsenal have not gone beyond the Champions League round of 16 since 2010, and this is their first appearance in the competition for six years.

When you put things in perspective, Carragher’s remarks are somewhat surprising. Whether the Gunners will actually be City’s main rivals for this season’s trophy, we shall have to wait and see.

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