Arsenal

Despite leading the Gunners to a pair of eighth-placed finishes and one fifth-placed standing during his first three years at the club, Mikel Arteta has spearheaded an unlikely top-flight title charge with Arsenal this season.

Arsenal enter the weekend five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the pile - a lead that will be extended to eight points if the Gunners can get the better of managerless Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.

With Manchester City in FA Cup action this weekend, Arteta's side can create even more breathing space at the top of the pile, and McLintock is no stranger to silverware from his playing days, having captained Arsenal to a league and cup double in 1971.

Speaking to Sports Mole at the recent London Football Awards, McLintock admitted that he was "surprised" by Arsenal's phenomenal season so far, but the former Leicester City and Brentford manager believes that Arteta has done "brilliantly" in his first foray into management.

When asked if Arsenal were capable of going all the way this year, the 83-year-old responded: "I think so. I was surprised, I thought it was going to be a difficult time for them this year, and he [Arteta] has only been there nearly three years now, but I think he's done brilliantly.

"I actually supported them when things were going slightly wrong, but when they got beat 3-1 [versus Manchester United], I thought 'this will affect them very much' but it didn't, they had a great run of nine games and won every one of them.

"It's going to be very difficult between Man City and Arsenal, but the way they've played and they way they played against Fulham, it was superb, they never gave them a chance."

First-half strikes from Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes and Martin Odegaard propelled Arsenal to a fifth Premier League win on the bounce over Fulham last weekend, but the Gunners have since suffered Europa League disappointment, going out to Sporting Lisbon in the last 16.

In that time, Man City have cruised through to the Champions League quarter-finals with an 8-1 aggregate success over RB Leipzig, storming to a 7-0 second-leg win thanks to a quintet of strikes from Erling Braut Haaland.

Nevertheless, McLintock believes that Man City have gone off the boil this season, which could give Arsenal a slight edge in the race for Premier League glory come the end of the season.

"I'm chuffed to bits but it's going to be difficult because Man City are an outstanding side as well, but I don't think they've been playing quite as well as they have in the past, so maybe that might give us an edge," McLintock added.

"To think that they're all fairly young at 23, 24. He's very keen himself, the manager, he seems to know what he's doing. He's getting a lot of confidence behind himself and his teammates.

"They've stuck with him and he's done brilliantly well. Coming in as an assistant manager at Man City and managing a team is quite difficult, and yet he's come through."

McLintock made 403 appearances and scored 32 goals for Arsenal between 1964 and 1973, while he also won nine caps for the Scotland national team.