Sunday\u2019s meeting at the Emirates Stadium presents a high-stakes examination of two leading Premier League sides. Arsenal arrive having recovered from a setback with wins over Nottingham Forest and Athletic Club in the past week, their defensive record notable after conceding just once this term to Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s free kick. Manchester City head north off a 3\u20130 derby win over Manchester United and a midweek victory against Napoli, with Erling Haaland boosting his total to 12 for club and country this season.<\/p>\n
City\u2019s forward line poses an obvious test, but Pep Guardiola\u2019s side have shown defensive vulnerabilities already exploited by Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion. Those shortcomings will be a clear focus for Mikel Arteta as he prepares his team at the Emirates.<\/p>\n
Availability will shape selection. Arteta has refused to rule Bukayo Saka, Martin \u00d8degaard and Ben White out of Sunday\u2019s crucial encounter, but has admitted that the injured trio “haven’t done anything yet” in preparation for City\u2019s visit. It appears unlikely they will start and they could all miss out entirely. William Saliba is fully fit and should replace Cristhian Mosquera, while Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Mikel Merino have been cleared after head injuries sustained in the Athletic Club match. Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus remain absent. Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trsosard both featured from the bench in Bilbao with a goal and assist and will press for starting roles.<\/p>\n
City will be without Omar Marmoush, Rayan Cherki and Mateo Kova\u010di\u0107, and Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri and John Stones are doubts. Rodri played an hour against Napoli but asked to be withdrawn and Guardiola admitted uncertainty over whether he will start.<\/p>\n
Predicted lineups from each camp are illustrative of likely approaches.<\/p>\n
Arsenal predicted lineup vs. Man City (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Merino, Zubimendi, Rice; Madueke, Gy\u00f6keres, Eze.<\/p>\n
Man City predicted lineup vs. Arsenal (4-1-4-1): Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, O\u2019Reilly; Rodri; Silva, Foden, Reijnders, Doku; Haaland.<\/p>\n
Last season\u2019s 5\u20131 Arsenal victory is a reminder that this fixture can be one-sided, but recent meetings more often have been tight. Arteta may prioritise solidity at the Emirates; Guardiola may accept a draw while seeking to steady his side\u2019s defence after mixed early-season results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Injury doubts and tactical choices set the scene as Arsenal host Manchester City at the Emirates. TV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238,969],"tags":[984,826,253],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-ben-white","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-declan-rice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}