Wayne Rooney has argued that Arsenal’s only way to get a result against Manchester City is to focus on their own game, rather than on stopping Erling Haaland.

Arsenal take on Manchester City on Wednesday in a crucial game for the Premier League title race, with a win for either side giving that team control of their own destiny ahead of the final games.

A draw would technically put things in City’s hands, but they’d have to make sure they didn’t drop any points in their two extra games in hand. It wouldn’t be a definitive outcome by any means.

Yet former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has argued that Arsenal won’t get a result if they focus on keeping City out.

Instead, they have to rely on their own game getting them the goals they’ll almost certainly need to get anything from the fixture.

“How do they stop Erling Haaland? With William Saliba injured, there’s no prospect of matching his pace and power individually, and the only way is to go out and try to impose their own game,” Rooney said.

“City can be vulnerable when you hit them in the transition and you saw it against Bayern Munich, particularly when Leroy Sane should have scored after Bayern won possession and broke on them.

“These are the opportunities you can get against City, and Arsenal have the players to capitalise in a way that Bayern didn’t — the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Gabriel Jesus.

“Arsenal should focus on how to expose those City defenders rather than focus too much on Haaland. The mindset needs to be: nobody thought we’d be here, and now we’re playing for the title – so let’s go and take it.

“If they go with that positive approach, it’ll be a great game. If they sit back and wait? Do that against City and you die a slow death.”

You’d have to imagine Rooney is right. Arsenal have conceded nine goals in their last five games, keeping zero clean sheets, and to expect to keep one against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium would be to set up for failure.

Instead, the Gunners have to focus on the fact they’ve scored 15 goals of their own in those same five games.

The likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have shown they can score against any opponent this season, and they have to believe they can do it again on Wednesday.