LONDON - Manchester City have opened up an eight-point gap at the top of the Premier League, scoring 38 goals along the way, but while some are predicting an unbeaten season for Pep Guardiola's side, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is not convinced.
City have won 10 of their opening 11 games, a home draw against Everton in August depriving them of a perfect start, and their 3-1 win over Arsenal earlier this month extended their winning streak to 15 games in all competitions.
Arsenal are the only team to go unbeaten throughout an entire Premier League season (2003-04) and when asked whether City could emulate his "Invincibles" the Frenchman said there was still a long way to go.
"They are a good side but they are not an unstoppable side," Wenger told BeIN Sports. "People always want to predict what will happen in the game. "I don't know more than you, maybe, maybe not, but at the moment only one team has done it".
Wenger also criticised referee Michael Oliver and called Raheem Sterling a diver for a second time after the defeat to City. Sterling drew a foul from Nacho Monreal to win a penalty and David Silva was offside before City scored their third goal.
"The referee had an absolutely atrocious input. We conceded a penalty that was not a penalty and an offside goal. Sterling used the naivety of the referee in a very positive way," the Frenchman said.
Wenger also suggested the clash was closer than the result suggested, citing "expected goals" statistics. He added: "If you look at the expected goals, it was 0.7 for them and 0.6 for us, it was tight, they created little and only had one more shot than us."
Numbers provided by Opta show Arsenal’s expected goals stood at 0.31, while City’s was 1.83.
Arsenal, who trail City by 12 points in sixth, host Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby on Saturday.