The day is finally here tomorrow. Arsenal will at last not have Arsene Wenger as manager in a competitive match since the autumn of 1996. For almost 22 years, the North London giants had an identity in world football as a team playing free-flowing football, not worrying much about defensive lapses. No longer though, as the new manager Unai Emery has systematically gone about dismantling almost everything from the Wenger era and the latest example is the Spaniard naming five captains who will lead this Arsenal team throughout the season.
While there is no doubt, Emery would have liked a more relaxed start to his Arsenal career than facing the champions Manchester City on the opening day of the season; this is a big opportunity for the Gunners to show that they are realistic title contenders. However, in the press conference, the Arsenal manager was beyond complimentary of his opposite number Pep Guardiola; “I am 46, and he is 47. His career as a player is bigger than mine, and his career as a coach is also bigger than mine. But we started at the same moment, our career as coaches. His coaches, with statistics and data, is better than me also.
“But I like to play more against him because it’s demanding for your preparation, to try to win against his teams.
“When we were in Spain, for me, each match against Barcelona with Almeria and then with Valencia for four years, was very exciting and demanding. It’s for that reason that Sunday is the same for me here. A new experience, but with one work with a lot of ambition for me.
“I want to show and to give our players also this ambition.”
Injury And Team News
Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny and left back Sead Kolasinac are out injured for the long-term. Nacho Monreal has just rejoined training and would not be match fit to face the Champions tomorrow.
Predicted 4-2-3-1 Arsenal Lineup Vs Manchester City
Defence
This is a tough one to be honest. While most pundits are tipping Bernd Leno to start given the outlay in the transfer fees Emery made, we believe Emery would provide Petr Cech with the opportunity to start in the Arsenal goal.
As Koscielny is out injured, the centre-back pairing of Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi picks itself. If it were any other match, it would have been a tossup between Hector Bellerin and Stephan Lichtsteiner regarding who would start at right back. However, as Manchester City has deadly pace on the wings, we would probably go with Bellerin for this one. With both Monreal and Kolasinac ruled out for this match, the youngster Ainsley Maitland-Niles is expected to start at left back.
Midfield
Aaron Ramsey is now back in training after recovering from a calf injury, and he would be expected to start in midfield with Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka.
Forward
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to start upfront. Alexandre Lacazette will miss out and would remain on the bench according to our calculations.
Mesut Ozil will start on the right wing, instead of his favourite No. 10 position, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan should start on the opposite flank.
