Nathan Ake’s injury poses a challenge for Manchester City as they face Arsenal, with uncertainty surrounding his return for the Real Madrid clash.

• Nathan Ake has been ruled out of the Premier League match against Arsenal due to a hamstring injury.
• Ake’s importance to Manchester City’s defence has been highlighted by Guardiola, and his absence is a significant concern.
• Aymeric Laporte is expected to step up and fill the void in the City defence against Arsenal.

Manchester City’s Nathan Ake has been ruled out of the upcoming Premier League match against Arsenal due to a hamstring injury sustained in their previous match against Bayern Munich.

The importance of Ake to City’s defence this season cannot be overstated, with Pep Guardiola previously mentioning after the World Cup that the team struggles to perform well without him.

His injury is a significant blow to the side as they prepare to face an in-form Arsenal team boasting the league’s second-best attack, having scored 77 goals so far this season. City have scored 78.

Ake’s disappointment was palpable as he said in Munich after suffering the injury, “It’s very frustrating. This season I’ve been mostly injury-free. We’ll see how it is but hopefully it isn’t too bad.”

His absence from the Arsenal match is confirmed, and there is uncertainty surrounding his availability for the Champions League clash with Real Madrid in two weeks.

In light of Ake’s injury, Aymeric Laporte is expected to step up and fill the void in the Manchester City defence against Arsenal. The Spaniard replaced Ake in the latter stages of the game against Bayern Munich and is now the logical choice for Guardiola to turn to

Guardiola is well aware of the threat Arsenal poses, as the Gunners have been leading the league for the majority of the season. There have only been three weeks this season when Arsenal were not in first place, and two of those were the first two weeks of the season.

With City’s defence the second-best in the league, conceding only 28 goals in their 30 games (Newcastle are first with 25, Arsenal have conceded 34), the upcoming match against Arsenal will undoubtedly test their resilience without Ake’s presence.