After a run of five wins, let’s take a look at our Arsenal predicted lineup to face league leaders Manchester City.

There’s no hiding from the fact that this next game is tougher than any Arsenal have come through recently as you can see from the odds on offer from the best sports betting sites.

Manchester City aren’t just the best team in the league right now, they’re also one of the sides Arsenal simply can’t beat in recent seasons.

But with the recent postponement of the Wolves clash and a Saturday-Thursday gap after the City game, Arsenal really have no other match to prioritise. Mikel Arteta may as well go all-out and at least try to keep their recent run going.

Here’s our predicted Arsenal lineup for the Manchester City clash on Saturday.

Goalkeeper

Barring fitness or illness issues, Aaron Ramsdale will start in goal, after yet another clean sheet against Norwich City. Bernd Leno will make the bench.

Defence

We’re going to be optimistic here and predict the return of Takehiro Tomiyasu to the side. The right-back recently tested positive for Covid-19, along with every other right-back at the club, but he hopefully has enough time to recover.

Tomiyasu was already absent from training for the week before the Norwich City game, but we don’t know how much of that was the knock he picked up recently, and how much was Covid isolation.

If most of it was the latter, he should be back in time. If not, Arsenal will be waiting on Cedric Soares and Calum Chambers to see if either of them recover first.

If none of them are ready, Rob Holding can step in again.

The rest of the back three will be Kieran Tierney, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Ben White.

Midfield

There’s another major doubt here, relating to Thomas Partey. We don’t have official confirmation yet that Ghana will allow Partey to play this game before leaving for AFCON, but it’s seeming more likely now.

Partey would slot into the side alongside Granit Xhaka as usual, with the in-form Martin Odegaard ahead of them.

If Ghana do decide to refuse Arsenal’s request, Albert Sambi Lokonga would surely be next in line to replace Partey.

Forwards

Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, and Alexandre Lacazette all seem likely to keep their places, though Emile Smith Rowe is really knocking on the door to replace someone – most likely Martinelli or Odegaard.

Eddie Nketiah will probably make the bench as the Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang situation drags on. Aubameyang will be off to AFCON with Gabon anyway.

Predicted Arsenal lineup vs Manchester City