Pep Guardiola quipped that if Liverpool or Arsenal beat Manchester City to the Premier League title this season, it will be purely due to their large transfer outlays.

City visit Arsenal for a huge matchup between two potential title challengers on Sunday, with both teams already playing catch-up behind defending champions Liverpool.

Arne Slot's Reds have won their first four games of the campaign, having spent over £400m on Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giovanni Leoni in the recent transfer window.

Arsenal, meanwhile, added Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Norgaard, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Piero Hincapie.

City have attracted criticism for their transfer activity in the past, and speaking to reporters on Friday, Guardiola suggested Liverpool and Arsenal deserve the same treatment.

Guardiola told reporters: "I want to say to my friend Mikel Arteta, if he wins the title, it will be just because he spent, not because he or his players worked a lot.

"It's like Liverpool. If Arne wins again, it will be because he spent a lot of money. Right? Because it's not just Man City where that happened, right? It's all of them. 

"Listen, for many, many years every club can do whatever they want. I know how they've been treated is completely different, but whatever he wants to spend is fine."

City have rallied after back-to-back defeats prior to the international break, beating Manchester United 3-0 in the Premier League and Napoli 2-0 in the Champions League.

But City have lost on their last two league trips to Arsenal, as many defeats as in their previous 14 visits (W7 D5 L2). It is their longest losing run away to the Gunners since April 2009 (four in a row), and they were trounced 5-1 last time they visited in February.

Although another defeat could see City slip nine points off the title pace, Guardiola does not believe the result will be decisive either way, saying: "It's the fifth game. Come on.

"When I arrived, Brian Kidd told me that Sir Alex Ferguson said, 'in the Premier League, you have to stay close to the top four up to Boxing Day'. After that, you can think about it.

"Last season, after Boxing Day, we were in another country. So that's why, let's go today and we'll see what happens. There are many games.

"From my experience, in the six Premier League wins, I think four or five, we were behind Liverpool or Arsenal in December or January. And at the end, we won it.

"We're not going to win the Premier League on Sunday. We're not going to lose the Premier League on Sunday."