Arsenal will entertain Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night with both sides expected to fight tooth and nail in search of the win that would book their a place in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup. The North London outfit have lost their last three league matches, so they will have to raise their game considerably to stand a chance of beating the opposition in midweek. In contrast, Man City have a lot of momentum going for them after picking up an impressive 1-0 win away at Southampton last weekend.
Talking Tactics
Mikel Arteta will probably set his players up in a 3-4-3 formation and could ask his players to control possession and engineer some clear-cut goal-scoring chances in midweek. Both Bukayo Saka and Hector Bellerin will have to figure out a way to stop the Man City full-backs from getting forward and cause some problems for them in the attacking third of the field.
Pep Guardiola will opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation and might instruct his players to keep a good defensive shape at the back and orchestrate some promising goal-scoring opportunities through Kevin De Bruyne’s creativity in the opposition half.
Team News
Arsenal
Gabriel should be back from suspension while Reiss Nelson is expected to recover in time for this cup encounter at home. However, Arteta will be sweating on the fitness of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ahead of this game on Tuesday.
Arsenal Predicted XI
Bernd Leno, Rob Holding, Gabriel, Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin, Joe Willock, Mohamed Elneny, Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette, Reiss Nelson
Manchester City
Both Gabriel Jesus and Aymeric Laporte are slight concerns for this match, but Guardiola should have Sergio Aguero available for selection in this upcoming contest at the English capital.
Manchester City Predicted XI
Ederson, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Sergio Aguero
Key Men
Arsenal
Alexandre Lacazette will carry most of the goal-scoring workload up top, but it will be up to Reiss Nelson and Nicolas Pepe to create some decent openings for him in the final third. The collective performance of Rob Holding, Gabriel and Kieran Tierney could very well end up determining the fate of this match.
Manchester City
De Bruyne will once again be at the heart of every good move that Man City can create in the opposition half. The Belgian international needs to have a good game so that Sergio Aguero gets enough ammunition to win this contest on the road.
Odds
The Mancunian giants are the heavy 3/5 favourites to win this cup clash while the draw is priced at 10/3 by the bookies. The Gunners are 15/4 underdogs to emerge victorious on Tuesday night.
