Arsenal are not going away this season, writes OLIVER HOLT

The daffodils that crowd the central reservation of Princess Road, the artery that flows into Manchester from the west and skirts Moss Side and Manchester City's old home at Maine Road, are beginning to fade and wilt, the clocks have gone forward and on Monday, April will be upon us.

It is the season of rebirth and English football is waiting for Pep Guardiola's side to put the hammer down and accelerate away from the rest of the field at the top of the Premier League because that, too, has become one of the rites of spring in the age of sky blue domination.

City have not lost for 117 days so they are doing their bit but there is something different about this year. For all their usual indomitability, they cannot see their rivals in the rear-view mirror yet. Because something else has changed, too: Arsenal are not going away this season.

Sure, if anyone won this 0-0 stalemate at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon, it was Liverpool. If Jurgen Klopp was delighted at the end of his team's 2-1 win over Brighton a couple of hours earlier, he was even happier when this draw between his team's two closest rivals left Liverpool two points clear at the top.

This game was enthralling at times and turgid at times. And if it was rarely thrilling, it was still a high-quality match between two sides who looked too scared of the consequences of losing to commit everything to winning. It was way too early for it to be a title decider but it will have left Liverpool and Arsenal more encouraged than Guardiola's men.

It was at this stage last season, don't forget, that Arsenal's title challenge crumbled. They had lost 3-1 to City at the Emirates in February and then submitted to a 4-1 capitulation here in April. If there was one thing to take