Arsenal travel to face Pep Guardiola’s Man City side in the 4pm Premier League kick-off on Sunday. Arsenal come into the match having lost their last game 2-1 to Everton – a match which they should have won so fans will be expecting the Gunners to come out flying. Man City come into the game at the Etihad having returned to winning ways after beating the solid Watford side 2-0 in the week.
In one of the more interesting stats about this fixture, the last 6 Premier League matches between the two clubs have produced a surprising 24 goals at an average of 4 goals for each game. The goal output comes as a bit of a shock considering you expect such top of the table clashes to be tight affairs with a goal of two determining the difference usually. Another very surprising stat is that Arsenal have an unbeaten record over the last 6 games played between the 2 clubs in all competitions with the Gunners winning 3 games and drawing 3 games.
An interesting selection conundrum faces Arsene Wenger as he would not likely have even been contemplating dropping the red-hot Alexis Sanchez but when you consider that French target man, Olivier Giroud has scored a goal in each of his last four appearances for Arsenal against City in all competitions – it at least merits consideration on how to get the Frenchman into the Gunners starting XI. Clearly you cannot drop Sanchez – he just has too much to offer and he has been integral to the success of Arsenal so far this season. Can Wenger find a way to get Giroud into the Arsenal XI? Maybe Wenger plays 4-4-2 if he moves Sanchez to play wide but gives him the licence to roam inside to cause damage.
Arsene Wenger has only faced Pep Guardiola in the Champions League and his record is far from stellar having won only 2 games, drawn 2 games while losing a depressing 4 games. So this is their first League meeting and if there was ever a time to break his winning duck it is now as a win would do wonders for Arsenal’s confidence and would put the Citizens even further back in the table.
Given the history of the game, goals seem likely and an Arsenal win would really underline the Gunners as genuine title contenders. Let’s not forget that it was only back on September 26th that Arsenal swept aside Chelsea 3-0 as Alexis, Walcott and Ozil scored fine goals to send Arsenal to a resounding win which then made Antonio Conte move to a 3-4-3 formation. A formation that has helped them win 11 games in a row. As Arsenal are capable of anything and beating the Citizens is definitely well within in reach.
We predict an Arsenal win as Man City are just too unsettled defensively at the moment and Arsenal look to have too much upfront for the Citizens to handle so we think the Gunners will win 2-1 in a hotly contested affair with plenty of drama. If you can’t watch the game live then why not follow all the action on our LIVE page. Go to http://goonernews.com/blog/live for all the action as it happens.