Manchester City vs Arsenal – Match Preview
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There is always drama unfolding in the Premier League and we saw a perfect example of this on Tuesday night as Manchester City fell to an unlikely defeat to Newcastle at St James’ Park, one that has hampered their hopes of winning back to back titles.
At the same time though, they do perhaps owe Leicester a huge debt of gratitude as Claude Puel’s men earned a point against Liverpool at Anfield. One that just stops the current Premier League leaders from flying off into the distance.
As things stand Manchester City find themselves five points behind Liverpool, although they do have the opportunity to erode that gap temporarily as they play before their title rivals in this upcoming gameweek.
However, cutting the gap down to two points for 24 hours or so might be easier said than done as they play host to an Arsenal side that have found themselves in the driving seat once more in the race for fourth place.
It will be the battle of the Spanish managers this Sunday as Pep Guardiola goes up against Unai Emery and the former will be hoping that this one pans out better than the similar clash he had on Tuesday.
That’s because Guardiola went toe-to-toe with compatriot Rafael Benitez and was outfoxed by the 2005 Champions League winner, even though Newcastle found themselves going behind after just 25 seconds.
Even after going ahead though it was a performance unlike what we usually see from City and the longer they failed to get a second goal, then the more Newcastle’s belief of getting something out of the game grew.
Goals form Salomon Rondon and Matt Ritchie capped off a dramatic turnaround and all City can do now is dust themselves off and hope that they don’t cede further ground to the Premier League leaders by the end of Monday evening.
Opponents Arsenal come to the Etihad off the back of successive league wins, they followed up their win over Chelsea almost a fortnight ago with victory on Tuesday night over Neil Warnock’s Cardiff at the Emirates.
Once again, the goal threat of Alexander Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were on display and that is something that City are going to have to nullify, if they are to come out on top on Sunday’s meeting.
They may also have to deal with Arsenal’s new signing Denis Suarez who has joined from Barcelona on loan for the rest of the season, a capture that will be a welcome addition to a midfield that has just lacked inspiration at times during this campaign.
City certainly lacked inspiration on Tuesday night, something that Pep Guardiola won’t allow to happen again. They could well be something of a wounded beast and in turn this could be the worst time for Arsenal to face them.
In fairness there’s never really a good time to face City, but this weekend you do get the feeling that they will have a point to prove or perhaps that should be all three as the hosts return to winning ways against the Gunners.
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