Arsenal travel up north to take on Manchester City in a game that could decide which team ends up winning the Premier League, so let’s take a look at the latest team news.
The Gunners have drawn their last three games and that has put them in a spot of real bother. Though they are five points ahead of City, Pep Guardiola and his men have played two games less and can make up the difference if they win their games in hand.
As for the team news, the big absentee is William Saliba who has not yet recovered from a back injury. This should get Rob Holding another chance to play in the middle of the defence. Granit Xhaka might return to training, but the midfielder remains a doubt.
Mohamed Elneny and Takehiro Tomiyasu are the players that are out for the season and the latter’s injury is particularly damaging. Apart from that, the others are fit as Mikel Arteta has some important decisions to make ahead of this game.
Arsenal Fever View:
Given that the north Londoners have not beaten City in the league since 2015, there is not a lot that is in their favour. And to add to that, their current form has given the defending champions an easy way back to the top of the table.
A lot of this can be put down to Saliba being injured but no excuses will work at this level. Either Arteta has to trust Holding, who alters how they play or focus on being creative with the resources he has.
Either way, it is extremely difficult to keep City from scoring, especially at home so the visitors need to focus on taking their chances. If the attackers can be clinical, it will give the league leaders at least some kind of hope.
For the Gunners, it is about how well their wingers, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are able to attack the City full backs. If that can happen, we will see the game being far more open and each team having a chance to get the three points.
Arsenal have a really poor record against City and to get anything from this game would be a huge boost. Though things are not looking good at the moment, Arteta will be hoping that his players can pull of another memorable moment this season.
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