Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are in seriously frightening form. The Citizens are playing the best possible football in Europe at the moment. They are dispatching sides with absolute ease and the fluidity in attack looks unstoppable. The Citizens have scored 44 goals in 13 matches since the market shut and with Aguero still finding his feet back in after the injury, it can be assumed that City are yet to hit top gear.
The stylish, fluid attacking football included wins over sides like defending league champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and a 5-0 drubbing of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Amongst the smaller teams, they thrashed Stoke City 7-2 in a match where they could have scored more goals and remain unbeaten in the league. In Europe, they boast of a perfect record with 4 wins out of 4 and their latest 4-2 thrashing of Napoli at Naples just went on to show the machine Guardiola is creating at the Etihad.
The team is so heavily armed that the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva have to be content with just playing as substitutes. Although Pep is likely to rotate his squad over the next few weeks again, as he has always been known to be a manager who uses an entire squad to keep players fresh and motivated.
The Gunners have enjoyed a monopoly in the group stage of Europa League but their record in the league has been far from perfect. Arsenal have won three of their four matches and drew against Red Star Belgrade at the Emirates in the midweek clash.
Unlike the domestic league, where Wenger’s men are having to endure yet another tough campaign, things have been comparatively easy for them in the Europa League.
Wenger has so far played a youth filled team for all his Europa League outings and with the weekend visit to the Etihad for the match against league leaders Manchester City looming large, Wenger once again rested his top boys.
If Wenger and his men, who are fifth in the current table and nine points off the pace, want to challenge for the title, they have to target for all 3 points on the weekend. It would mean recalling his star players and preparing them to face Guardiola’s free-flowing attacking team who play at the highest tempo for the full ninety minutes.
Wenger will also be boosted with the return of Kolasinac after a recurring hip injury he aggravated against Swansea City last time out.
An added attention to the game will also be the Sanchez saga with the Chilean being denied of the desired move to Manchester City in the summer.
It is expected to be another victory for Guardiola’s men when they face Arsenal given their current run of form. Although Wenger has vowed to attack, it remains to be seen how long can the Gunners keep up the tempo in an open attacking game against Guardiola who is somewhat of a specialist when it comes to attacking matches.
Here is how the teams will look to lineup:
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Otamendi, Stones, Delph, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Sane, Sterling, Jesus
Arsenal: Cech, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Ramsey, Xhaka, Ozil, Lacazette, Sanchez.
Prediction:
Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal
Betting Odds:
Manchester City: 4/9
Draw: 17/4
Arsenal: 6/1
