Manchester City will entertain Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening looking to pick up all three points that would consolidate their second position in the Premier League table. The Citizens will come into this contest on the back of a 2-0 derby defeat versus Manchester United before the football world had come to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, the Gunners will also be hungry for a victory as they try to pull off an upset on the road in midweek.
Talking Tactics
Pep Guardiola will stick with his preferred 4-3-3 formation and instruct his players to dominate possession and pin the opposition back inside their half. The Mancunian outfit will look to orchestrate some clear-cut goal-scoring chances going forward, so their primary focus would be to get in behind the Arsenal defence and feed some inviting crosses to Sergio Aguero up top.
Mikel Arteta will likely go for a 4-2-3-1 set-up on Wednesday and might ask his players to soak up the Man City pressure and hit them back with the pace of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe on the counter.
Team News
Manchester City
Guardiola will have a full squad of players to choose from when the Gunners come to town later this week.
Manchester City Predicted XI
Ederson, Zinchenko, Laporte, Fernandinho, Walker, David Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne, Sterling, Aguero, Mahrez
Arsenal
Calum Chambers, Nacho Monreal and Emile Smith-Rowe are still out of action due to injury which rules them out of this encounter in midweek. Otherwise, Arteta has no fresh injury concerns to worry about right now.
Arsenal Predicted XI
Leno, Saka, Luiz, Mari, Bellerin, Xhaka, Torreira, Ozil, Aubameyang, Pepe, Lacazette
Key Men
Manchester City
Sergio Aguero will carry most of Man City’s goal-scoring workload up top. He will be the danger man for the Arsenal defenders to cope with in midweek. The Gunners will also need to stop De Bruyne from creating too many chances in the final third.
Arsenal
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be Arteta’s best hope for a goal away at Manchester. Both Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira will have to work their socks off to get a foothold in the game at the centre of the park.
Odds
The bookmakers have made Manchester City the favourites to emerge victorious at the Etihad on Wednesday evening after they were priced at 4/11. The draw has been listed as 17/4 while the North London outfit are 13/2 underdogs to pull off an upset against Pep Guardiola’s men.
