Arsenal Will End City’s Unbeaten Run

MATCH PREVIEW – Manchester City vs Arsenal – PREMIER LEAGUE – 18.01.15

One week after an emphatic win against Stoke, a 3-0 drubbing that could easily have been 5 or 6, and optimism is a rare commodity amongst the fans. The reason being Arsenal’s next opponents are Manchester City who are unbeaten in 14 matches and running Chelsea close in the title race despite being written off earlier in the season.

Arsenal vs Manchester City matches are usually quite close, even the 6-3 match was much closer than the scoreline suggested, and often are the “big” games that Arsenal come closest to winning.

New City signing Wilfried Bony will not be available for this match as he is at the African Cup of Nations as is Yaya Toure so much of City’s physical superiority will be missing which could be advantageous to Arsenal who boast a poor away record at the “big” stadiums.

With a return of just  2 wins and 7 draws from 21 games since 2011 (or 13 points from a possible 63 had they all been league games) at the grounds of Chelsea, United and City it is no wonder Arsenal are often accused of bottling the big matches.

Sometimes I think it can be quite an unfair accusation as those teams rarely lose at home anyway, less so in recent years in Manchester United’s case, and expecting Arsenal to be the rare exception who does take away the points is unrealistic.

The big defeats last year to City, Chelsea and Liverpool have also skewed history a bit with the current narrative being that Arsenal always receive a hiding in this matches. Perspective is often overlooked when on the receiving end of a big defeat and what is an anomaly is cited as the norm. A full strength Arsenal held Chelsea to a draw at home, beat Liverpool, held City last season, very almost beat them this season and were unlucky to lose to United.

It’s clear our away form at these clubs is poor yet we should not overlook Arsenal’s injury woes in these games as it is far too easy to fall into the trap of just assuming we will get a pasting.

Arsenal aren’t quite a full-strength at the moment but we are edging closer to being 80% there as Debuchy and Arteta are out for a considerable amount of time. An 80% full-strength Arsenal is capable of beating most teams on their day and based on how teams set up against a fit Arsenal says a lot about our quality.

This is being billed as the Alexis vs Aguero show but Cazorla and Silva have been in superb form recently and their battle is possibly more important as whoever comes out on top will surely be on the winning side. City have a lot of creativity in their midfield and that may just see a more defensive minded approach from Arsenal which will leave the responsibility of scoring and creating goals on the shoulders of Cazorla and Alexis.

I fancy us for this one and as we know, unbeaten runs are there to be broken.

Arsenal from; Szczesny, Ospina, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Chambers, Monreal, Bellerin. Flamini, Coquelin, Rosicky, Ramsey, Özil, Giroud, Walcott, Chamberlain, Alexis, Cazorla, Campbell.

PREDICTED LINE-UP

Ospina, Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Chamberlain, Flamini, Coquelin, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud

I expect to see substitute appearances from Ramsey, Özil and Walcott.

MATCH QUOTE

“[On the 6-3 results from last season] It was not at all [a reflection of the game], if you look at the chances on both sides. They scored some of the goals in the last 20 minutes, when we were down to 10 men and had to go forward. We missed chances over there. Every game is different though. If you play 10 times against the same team, 10 times it will be different. So let’s just focus on the performance of the day.”  – Arsène Wenger

LAST 3 MEETINGS

• Arsenal 2-2 Man City (13.09.2014)
• Arsenal 3-0 Man City (10.08.2014)
• Arsenal 1-1 Man City (29.03.2014)

FORM GUIDE

Arsenal Last 5
WWLWW

City Last 5
DWWDW

OPPOSITION WATCH

City have grown in confidence since beating Bayern Munich and scraping through the group stages with a win against Roma in the Champions League and that confidence has been reflected in their league form too.

Pellegrini’s side haven’t lost in the league since West Ham beat them 2-1 in October at Upton Park however they have been run quite close by the likes of QPR, Burnley and Sunderland. For all their big scoring displays of 3 or 4 goals they have conceded a few goals in recent weeks too – 5 in their last 3 games which included Everton, Burnley and Sunderland.

Arsenal have conceded 5 more goals this season than City but with a largely makeshift defence from game to game so a little more stability may have seen us concede fewer.

City’s last two Premier League games has seen them concede relatively quickly after scoring themselves so this is a weakness Arsenal could exploit should they find themselves behind. On the flip side City have also shown great ability to do the same and score late point salvaging goals this season too.

City are obviously not opposition to take lightly and I’m pretty certain they feel the same way about us.

FACTFILE

• Vanishing spray was first used in England in the Community Shield match between these two clubs
• City have not lost to Arsenal in the league in 5 games
• City have lost just one league home game this season
• This game will see the two players who have contributed to the most goals this season with Alexis on 12 goals and 7 assists and Aguero on 14 goals and 3 assists.
• There have been 28 goals in the last seven matches between Arsenal and Man City

PREDICTION

I expect a high-octane game but a tight scoreline. I’m quite confident about this match as City are the “big” team I think we give the best run for their money so I’m going to get some free bets and back Arsenal to win.

2-1 to Arsenal with Giroud and Alexis scoring.

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