Arsenal deserve to win Premier League this season, says Robert Pires

Arsenal legend Robert Pires thinks it should be the Gunners leading the table owing to current form and not Chelsea, ahead of their crucial Premier League fixture against Liverpool at the Emirates.

The north London club have been in brilliant form in the league, winning their last six games and coming back from what was broadly perceived to be Arsene Wenger's first failure in securing a Champions League spot. The Gunners were undone by a tepid start to the season, with a lot of their players struggling from a post-World Cup hangover, which heavily affected their games.

The Gunners drew against teams in the bottom half of the table and lost to the likes of Stoke City which cut their title charge short, leading to Chelsea and Manchester City taking an unassailable lead in the early stages. However, the Gunners clawed back into the mix with wins over City after the turn of the year and have since lost only two games so far in the year.

Pires believes that the league was there for the taking for the Gunners and that they will have regrets over how they started their season, which otherwise would have been a productive year for the north London club.

"In my opinion, this year, Arsenal deserved to be champion, and they won't be far away," he told Perform.

"[But] I think, once more, there will be some little regrets at the end of the season.

"It's tough and frustrating for the fans. Every time, Arsenal is close," Pires added.

"It's because of the important games that you can't lose, against Chelsea, [Manchester] City and [Manchester] United.

"But this is the difference. Because against the smaller teams, sometimes there is a misstep or an accident," he added.

The Gunners are still active in the FA Cup, where they will face Reading in the semi-finals at Wembley as they look to retain their trophy from last season.