Stuart Pearce gives bold reason as to why it’s harder for Man City to win the Premier League than Arsenal or Liverpool

Stuart Pearce believes Manchester City face a tougher test of winning the title than Liverpool or Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola's side are fighting for the Premier League crown in a hotly-contested race against the Reds and the Gunners.

Should City triumph, they win a record fourth consecutive title and will continue to establish their dominance in the English game.

Liverpool and last season's runners-up Arsenal will challenge them until a champion has been crowned, with both sides so far proving their worth this season.

However, former City defender Pearce suggested the reigning champions winning again would be more of an achievement than Arsenal and Liverpool doing it.

Speaking live on talkSPORT commentary for their latest against Brentford, he said: "If Man City win the league this year, they'd have earned it more than Liverpool and Arsenal.

"Because of what the opposition do when they come here [Etihad Stadium], everybody offers Man City more respect than probably any other team in the league I think, especially coming here.

"You see how teams bank up and make it so, so difficult for them, more so than other teams I think."

He added: "It's so difficult. People think it's easy, Man City are just going to turn up and not Brentford over their odds-on to win the game. It's not that easy the game."

City sit third in the Premier League and missed the chance to rise up to second when they were held to a 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

Liverpool are the current leaders and sit two points ahead of Arsenal, who fell short against City at the end of last season.

Guardiola and co will be aware that there is still a long way to go in the race but also know that there is very little room to slip up.