Having battled hard with Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side for the past couple of seasons, Arsenal find ourselves six points ahead of City and with the upper hand in the recent meetings, having remained unbeaten in the last four clashes.
The clash rings memories when Arsenal led, then went down to 10 men, withstood wave after wave of City’s attacks before John Stones scrambled home an equaliser seconds from time to snatch a 2-2 draw at the Eitihad in September.
This was the match City’s crucial midfielder Rodri sustained the injury that has ruled him out for the season and also had Erling Haaland coining the famous “stay humble” phrase.
This was also the match City’s crucial midfielder Rodri sustained the injury that ruled him out for the season.
The Gunners are facing Pep Guardiola’s side putting their unbeaten home record on the line as Man City looked to have rediscovered their normal self registering some important wins and this fixture could have a huge say in Arsenal’s destiny of the Premier League title.
Going unbeaten in their first nine league games, Manchester City were looking much brighter to win a fifth league title in a row, but suddenly their form and confidence took a nosedive.
Losses to Tottenham Hotspur and Sporting Lisbon were then followed by league losses to Bournemouth, Brighton and Spurs again, this time by a 4-0 scoreline to condemn Pep Guardiola to five straight losses for the first time in his glittering managerial career.
A 3-0 lead against Feyenoord was then squandered before a loss against Liverpool followed, and despite beating Nottingham Forest, they were beaten by Juventus and endured two draws and two defeats over Christmas, incredibly leaving them with one win from 13 matches.
But things have begun to return to normal. They’re now unbeaten in six Premier League games, and only Newcastle have won more points since Christmas than City’s 14.
A 4-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last week left their hopes of remaining in the Champions League on the brink, but after a 3-1 home win against Chelsea they overcame Club Brugge by the same scoreline on Wednesday to set up a play-off duel against Real Madrid.
What has Mikel Arteta said?
“A win would be a big boost for us. Winning big matches is always something special. Every time we play a big match against one of our big rivals it brings something extra – the confidence, the emotion, the fact that they are there and continue to win – for that we want to achieve.
“The business is to be better than them. That’s it. The only thing I review is what happened during that match, how competitive it gets is normal when two big teams want to win the game. Nothing else from that side.”
What has Pep Guardiola said?
“We started this run of games in Paris, then afterwards Chelsea, so we are already there in terms of difficult games. The schedule is what it is.
“It always happens in the Premier League, always they put the toughest [fixtures] – always they are so kind with the calendar. For many years it happens that way. We had amazing success dealing with this calendar. It’s always been like that, we accept it, I’m not complaining because we won the treble.”
Head to head (h2h) history and results
Arsenal wins: 100
Draws: 47
Man City wins: 65
Kick of at 16:30GMT at the Emirates.
