Arsene Wenger feels the Premier League title race will be an open one this season and that his side are now beginning to show they can be involved in the fight for honours.

Despite early defeats to West Ham and Chelsea, the Gunners are within three points of new leaders Manchester United, who they meet at the Emirates this weekend.

Manchester City had been tipped to run away with the title in some quarters after they put together an impressive five-game winning streak to start the season, but they have now lost two in a row and Wenger is encouraged by what he has seen.

“Two weeks ago, you could say one team were going to run away with it and now it’s tight again. You have to be consistent,” he said.

A hat-trick from Alexis Sanchez helped Arsenal to a 5-2 win away at Leicester on Saturday for the Foxes’ first defeat of the season.

Wenger feels his team are now hitting their stride in a similar fashion to the excellent form they showed during the second half of last season.

“That’s what we focus on. I feel that the quality of our game is getting better, week by week, and overall we are finding the level that we had shown at the end of last season,” he added.

“We came to Leicester, who had not lost a game this season, and the fact that we could win in a convincing way is of course good for our confidence as well.”

Arsenal are 5.00 to win the Premier League title this season while they are 1.95 to beat United at the Emirates on Sunday.