Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny believes the English Premier League title race is already down to two teams – the Gunners and Manchester United.

The former Lorient defender is still inside his first season in England, but has clearly seen enough to discount the title claims of Chelsea and Manchester City.

United lead the league on 54 points, with Koscielny’s Gunners five points behind in second.

Manchester City lie in third but have played one more game for their 46 points, with holders Chelsea 10 points adrift of United.

The scenario is enough for Koscielny to dismiss all other challengers bar his Gunners side, though his comments are sure to rile in the Manchester City and Chelsea camps.

“It looks like we are the last challengers to United,” he said.

“We have got more points than Manchester City, Chelsea and the others. We need to focus on our game, keep winning, keep picking up points and maybe United will lose games at some point.”

“Anything can happen in this league. That’s why we must keep working hard together. We will keep fighting. It’s important we keep our defence strong. If we don’t concede, we will always make chances to score ourselves.”

“It’s going to be a big battle between us and Manchester United and hopefully they will drop points, not us. It’s not going to be easy. But we have faith in ourselves and in the squad. We do believe we can do it so bring it on.”