Manchester City faces Arsenal on Sunday
The English Premier League’s biggest spenders will take on one of the traditional Big Four clubs when Manchester City faces Arsenal at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday, 24 October.
City is riding high in the league after a string of good results helped them to second place, two points behind defending champions Chelsea. They also emerged 3-1 victors from their UEFA Europa League group stage match against Polish outfit Lech Poznan in
midweek.
Arsenal will also be going into the game full of confidence after they dismantled Shakhtar Donetsk 5-1 in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. They are in third place in the EPL table, but a win on Sunday will take them level with City on 17 points. Both
sides have been boosted by the returns of big players ahead of the match.
City’s Mario Balotelli is once again fit after playing just 33 minutes for the club so far — a goalscoring debut against FC Timisoara in the UEFA Europa League. However, the young Italian striker is set for a place on the bench.
Sagna fit again
Arsenal, meanwhile, will welcome back full-back Bacary Sagna, who has recovered from a thigh problem. Forwards Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott are also in contention to face the Citizens after working their way back from their respective injuries.
However, the Gunners will be without midfielder Jack Wilshere as the England international begins a three-match ban. Defenders Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen are out of the match due to injury, as is goalkeeper Manuel Almunia. Striker Robin van Persie
and midfielder Aaron Ramsey will not return until November.
City forward Emmanuel Adebayor could be in line for a starting spot against his former club after his hat-trick heroics against Poznan. Though he has rarely started for the club this season, he will have forced his way into manager Roberto Mancini’s thinking
after an impressive display.
Mancini told the club’s official website that: "He's scored a hat-trick and he has a good chance of playing against Arsenal. He gave an excellent performance. It was very important for us and for him. A striker needs to score goals and he scored three."
Tevez in fine form
However, City’s main man is likely to be Carlos Tevez. The Argentinean club captain has played a key role in nine of City’s 12 league goals this term — netting seven himself and setting up two for others — and he has scored 28 goals in his last 31 league
games, a formidable record by any standards.
Arsenal, meanwhile, will be able to call on captain Cesc Fabregas after the 2010 FIFA World Cup winner returned from a hamstring injury in the win over Shakhtar. The Spain international had been out of action for around six weeks, but marked his return with
a goalscoring performance.
While there are several key factors involved in Sunday’s game, Arsenal’s continued poor form on the road may be the one which comes back to haunt them. They have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 15 away games, while they have only won a
single match at another team’s ground in the EPL in the last eight attempts.
More importantly, they have lost on four of their last trips to face City, while they have lost five and won two of their last eight EPL away games with referee Mark Clattenburg in charge. It is also only the third time they have lost ten or more goals in
their first eight league matches in the history of the EPL. However, they have shot at goal more times than any other club in the league this season, 121 compared to City’s 70 — the fourth lowest total.
All of this makes for an intriguing match-up and it is likely to be a hotly contested affair where the points can go either way.
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