Manchester City will face Arsenal in what promises to be a mouth-watering Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, September 22. Those two teams occupied the top two positions in the league table in the last two seasons, with the Cityzens finishing slightly ahead of the Gunners on both occasions.
They are again occupying the top two spots in the ongoing season, with Manchester City being ahead of Arsenal by a couple of points.
Hence, the match between those two teams might be potentially season-defining. Pep Guardiola will look to win the battle against his former assistant, Mikel Arteta, to take a decisive lead in the title race.
Arsenal might have a defensive approach to the game against Manchester City :
Arsenal has repeatedly shown the ability to adopt an ultra-defensive approach and grind out results, as they did in their recent 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. In skipper Martin Odegaard’s absence, they will likely follow the same approach again on Sunday.
Their wingers, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, will look to hurt the Cityzens with their darting runs off counter-attacks. Leandro Trossard, playing as the No. 10, should also play a key role in organizing Arsenal’s moves on the counter.
However, Manchester City will fancy their chances of scoring a goal or two past the Gunners’ defence. Erling Haaland, on the cusp of reaching the milestone of scoring 100 goals for his current club, will want to score a goal in a big match to silence his critics, who question his form in important matches.
Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku and Bernardo Silva will also want to smother the Gunners’ defence with their swift, short passes. However, Manchester City’s attackers must take Gabriel and William Saliba further away from each other by stretching Arsenal’s defence.
If Gabriel and Saliba stay close to each other, with Declan Rice and Thomas Partey shielding them, the Citizens might find Arsenal’s defence as challenging to breach as Tottenham did.
The key will be to break the compactness of their back four, and it can only be done by playing quick passes through the inside channels involving both wingers, centre-forwards, and other central midfielders.
Haaland’s lack of mobility inside the final third might concern Manchester City. The 24-year-old Norwegian must know he will be given no space inside Arsenal’s box. Moreover, Kevin de Bruyne missing the match due to an injury will also blow the Cityzens.
Hence, he must sometimes be ready to move sideways to drag his markers with him. Whether he can do that and help his team take a vital lead at the top of the table remains to be seen.
