Arsenal vs Manchester City – English Premier League – Preview

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Sreya

In one of the most crucial fixtures in the race for the English Premier League title, Arsenal will host Manchester City at the Emirates on 21st December, Monday. Manchester City sit in the third place on league standings with 32 points while the Gunners are a position above with 33 points after sixteen matches.

Team News

Arsenal have a lengthy list of absentees, with Santi Cazorla (knee), Alexis Sanchez (hamstring), Mikel Arteta (calf muscle), Francis Coquelin (knee), Jack Wilshere (calf), Tomas Rosicky (knee) and Danny Welbeck (knee) will also be absent due to injury concerns.

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Sergio Aguero is set to return to the matchday squad, according to Manuel Pellegrini, but whether the Argentinian forward starts the game will depend on his pre-match fitness assessment. Manchester City will still be without their captain Vincent Kompany (calf injury), Pablo Zabaleta (knee injury), Fernando (hamstring) and Samir Nasri (hamstring).

Arsenal Possible Starting Lineup: Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey, Mathieu Flamini, Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Joel Campbell, Olivier Giroud.

Manchester City Possible Starting Lineup: Joe Hart, Bacary Sagna, Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demichelis, Aleksandr Kolarov, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“What you look at is of course to nullify the individual quality they have offensively, that will be vital for us to find a good balance between defending well as a team and expressing our way to go forward. But you cannot ignore the individual quality they have up front.

If we win, it will boost our chances of course to go to the top. It is a massive game and when you play at home you want to win because we ambitious and we feel over Christmas we play many home games and our strength and we have the chance to come out in a strong position after Christmas.”

– Arsene Wenger, Arsenal.

“It is not a decisive game because after that we have to play 21 games more. But it is important to demonstrate who is the best team of the first round and to play against the team who is one point above our team. It is a game of six points.”

– Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, Manchester City have won two of their previous six meetings with Arsenal in the Premier League. On current form, it should be a closely contested affair, but Arsenal are likely to prevail over their title rivals, with 2-1 being the most probable scoreline.