West Ham manager David Moyes is still firmly backing Manchester City to win the title despite seeing his Hammers side lose comprehensively to Arsenal on Monday night.

Victory for the Gunners means they are now eight points ahead of City but Moyes believes that the reigning champions are favourites to finish top:

“I think [Arsenal boss] Mikel [Arteta] might go on to be one [a title winner]. Do I think they’re going to win it this year? I’m not sure. I think you’d be remiss if you don’t think of Man City. You’d be doing them down. They’e got a fantastic team and there’ll be other teams that are a bit more used to being around the top, maybe a Liverpool later on. Not to say that Mikel isn’t building a side capable [of winning the title] but I think he’ll know that Man City will be the ones.”

Despite taking the lead against Arsenal, West Ham were very much second-best for most of the game at the Emirates, and nobody can have any complaints about the scoreline.

While Moyes seems keen to downplay his opponent’s title credentials, they were very impressive, giving the Irons very little time on the ball and making it very difficult for them to get out of their own half and play on the counter-attack.

Pressure is building on Moyes, with his team sitting just a point off the bottom three as we near the halfway point of the season. He will need to turn things around quickly if he wants to stay in his job.