Arsenal host Manchester City in the jam packed season of football. The Gunners are already submerged in a tsunami and to take them out of it would be a huge task considering they play Pep Guardiola’s rejuvenated squad.
The sacking of Unai Emery has not worked for the North Londoners as Ljungberg has been a useless understudy for them. The interim manager with only three Premier League games is already under the radar and a win against City would do him great deal.
Arsenal would surely gain a little confidence from the Premier League win in their last game against West Ham wherein they were trailing by a goal until 60 minutes but were successful in lifting their heads with 3 goals in the span of 9 minutes.
The likes of Martinelli and Nicolas Pepe have ticked for the Gunners which may instil a sense of competition against Manchester City.
When and Where:
Date: December 15, Sunday
Time: 10:00 pm (IST)
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Team News
Manchester City have dealt with a huge blow of Aguero since his understudy Gabriel Jesus has risen to occasions. The Brazilian youngster will have to continue with the same vein of form with Aguero not available this Sunday too.
The travellers will also miss their key man in David Silva who is injured alongside the regular victims John Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane. Their first time goalkeeper Ederson is also a doubt due to illness.
While the hosts have a winning problem to deal with, their list of injury is not good either. Their star from last game Nicolas Pepe is injured and may not play on Sunday.
The likes of Dani Ceballos, Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Tierney are also unavailable due to injury. Lacazette though available may lose his place to Martinelli who has been on a goal-scoring spree for the Gunners.
Head To Head
The woeful Arsenal may well be the team Manchester City would have wanted to play to continue their winning run. The Premier League champions have not lost to the Gunners in the last 5 Premier League encounters.
The overall record may well be in Arsenal’s favour with the North Londoners winning 96 games as compared to City’s 55 in all head to head competitions. Keeping the wider past behind and focussing on the last 3 years, I would say Manchester City would gain 3 easy points.
Predicted Line-Up
Arsenal Predicted line-up (4-2-3-1): Leno; Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Chambers, Kolasinac; Torreira, Guendouzi; Pepe, Ozil, Martinelli; Aubameyang
Manchester City Predicted line-up (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Zinchenko; Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne; Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling
