Arsenal face Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday, after sneaking back into the top four for the first time in almost two months.
With Chelsea’s heavy defeat to Bournemouth and Arsenal’s victory over Cardiff City in midweek, Unai Emery’s side returned to the Champions League qualification places. The upcoming game against Pep Guardiola’s side means it’s going to be a real challenge to end the week there though.
Emery doesn’t have a midweek game to think about, so there’s no need for any rotation. However, he’s likely to bring a few players back into the starting eleven after Tuesday’s performance. Plus, he has new loan signing Denis Suarez in the mix.
Let’s have a look at our predicted lineup for the clash.
1Goalkeeper and Defence
Emery continues to chop and change between a back three and a back four recently, but with all the injuries at the moment you’d expect a back four on this occasion.
Stephan Lichtsteiner was disappointing against Cardiff, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles is a doubt for this one after picking up a knee injury. With Hector Bellerin also out long-term, Carl Jenkinson is surprisingly looking like the most likely option for this match. The 26-year-old made his Premier League return in midweek and did well.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Rob Holding are out injured, and Laurent Koscielny is still a strong doubt despite his return to full training. The Frenchman’s injury against Manchester United wasn’t nearly as bad as initially feared, but he’s still likely to miss this game.
That leaves Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal as the centre-back pairing. Konstantinos Mavropanos is also available, but if Emery didn’t want to risk the young defender’s comeback against Cardiff, he’s unlikely to do so against Manchester City.
Bernd Leno will start in goal over Petr Cech as usual.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and the full Predicted Starting XI
Manchester City vs Arsenal Betting Tips
Alexandre Lacazette has three goals in four league games, and he scored in his only other appearance in this fixture last season. Bet on Lacazette to score anytime with BetUK at 12/5.
This fixture isn’t often a high-scoring one. The last game with five or more goals was back in 2013. Bet on under 4.5 goals with BetUK at 20/49.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is Arsenal’s top scorer, with six goals in his last eight games. Bet on Aubameyang to score anytime with BetUK at 6/4.
Prediction: Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal (10/1 with BetUK).