Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech fears their title challenge is already in the balance.

Cech admitted that Manchester City already look red-hot favourites.

“Twelve points (ahead of Arsenal) is a big gap, they have a big advantage but the season is very long and we've seen things in the past and how it can change pretty quickly," said Cech.

“If you look at Chelsea last season, they had a difficult start but had a run off 15 wins from this and that made all of the difference.

"City started really well last season then they had a few games where they dropped points and things changed very quickly for them.

“It's up to them, if they come to you, playing well, scoring lots of goals and if they carry on how they've started the season then it will be difficult for anybody to catch them."