Arsenal face a tough task as they travel to the Etihad Stadium where they’ll face a Manchester City side that looks to be on their way to the title after only 10 games. They are currently sitting with 28 out of a possible 30 points that also includes a +29 goal differential. Manager Pep Guardiola has found a successful formula that hopefully Arsenal can emulate to get a result on Sunday.
The cries for Eddie Nketiah have somewhat faded since that heroic display in the Carabao Cup and in that time, Arsenal gained three more points after beating Swansea City 2-1 at the Emirates last weekend. This week also saw Arsenal advance to the knockout stages of the Europa League after a 0-0 draw at home to Red Star Belgrade. It wasn’t the prettiest of performances for the Arsenal 2nd team, but a good result knowing there are still two games to play in the group stages.
This season obviously has a different feel from other years because we don’t have to play Champions League games on Tuesdays/Wednesdays but it gives the manager the opportunity to rest his first team players. For the first time in I don’t know how long, Arsenal have enough healthy players to put out two full teams, one team playing Premier League football and the other playing Europa League and Carabao Cup games. This should definitely give Arsenal the advantage when coming up against Premier League competition because the first team is fresh and ready to go for the most part. The real question though is what Arsenal team we will see on Sunday? Will we see the team that struggled against Stoke and Watford or the team the buckled down and held out a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge? Either way you look at it, Arsenal will need to play their best game of the season to sniff a result against Manchester City.
There are only a few injuries to report and hopefully that list gets shorter after the international break. Danny Welbeck is still a little bit off from full training and won’t be available for Sunday. David Ospina is back in training but still short of the match on Sunday. According to Arsene Wenger, Mustafi is still a bit off from full training and will re-assess after the international break. It sounds like they’re being a bit more cautious with Mustafi. Some good news is that Calum Chambers is back in full training and should be available for selection after the international break as well.
Predicted Starting XI
We should see the same starting XI we’ve seen in recent weeks. Here’s my prediction:
Cech; Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal; Bellerin, Kolasinac; Xhaka, Ramsey; Ozil, Lacazette, Alexis
Predicted Result
These big games are always hard to call because Arsenal’s inconsistency in recent years in big games, especially away from home. Manchester City are coming off a Champions League game but have plenty of firepower off the bench. As a fan, I’d be very happy with a draw and I think Arsenal can do it. I predict a 1-1 draw after a hard fought 90 minutes.