Manchester City and Arsenal lock horns at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday and by this point these teams know each other so well and there’s very little between them.
WATCH MANCHESTER CITY v ARSENAL LIVE
Chuck in Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta working together for several years and Arsenal basically following City’s philosophy and playing style and things become even tighter.
With injury issues to key players cropping up for both City and Arsenal ahead of this mammoth game in the Premier League title race, plus so many talented attackers available for both teams, there are big selection decisions for Guardiola and Arteta to make.
Below we reveal the Manchester City vs Arsenal predicted lineups and look at the team news and how both teams can prevail.
How to watch Manchester City vs Arsenal live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 11:30am ET Sunday (September 22)
Venue: Etihad Stadium
TV Channel: USA Network
Streaming: Watch live on NBC.com
Manchester City predicted lineup (4-2-3-1), team news
----- Ederson -----
--- Walker --- Stones --- Dias --- Gvardiol ---
---- Rodri ---- Kovacic ----
---- Foden ---- De Bruyne ---- Silva ----
----- Haaland -----
Don’t be surprised if Manuel Akanji starts over Stones as Guardiola continues to ease plenty of his players in. Kovacic alongside Rodri seems like the smart play in central midfield, but Gundogan’s incredible leadership and experience may be preferred for a game of this magnitude. In attack City have so many options with Savinho, Doku and Grealish all impressing, but Foden will probably start on the right after being eased into the season, and it would be surprising if Bernardo Silva doesn’t get the nod on the left. If Kevin de Bruyne is fit he obviously starts, but if he isn’t then Silva or Foden could slot inside and one of Savinho, Grealish or Doku will start behind the machine that is Erling Haaland. How does Guardiola leave some of these attacking players out of the starting lineup? Talk about Champagne problems…
Arsenal predicted lineup (4-3-3), team news
----- Raya -----
---- White ---- Saliba ---- Gabriel ---- Timber ----
---- Jorginho ---- Partey ---- Rice ----
---- Saka ---- Havertz ---- Trossard ----
The back four picks itself for Arsenal with Timber slotting in seamlessly at left back. Calafiori could obviously come in as Arteta may not want to run Timber into the ground as he’s just recovered from his long-term injury, but Timber has looked so solid defensively that’s it would be tough to leave him out. In midfield the trio of Jorginho, Partey and Rice seem like the smart choice and that will give them extra defensive solidity to sit back deep and clog up City’s passing lanes. In attack we know Saka will start on the right and Havertz up top centrally, while the big decision is who will start on the left wing. Trossard gives Arsenal something a little different as he can cut inside and switch with Havertz seamlessly, while also being able to keep the ball which will be vital to stem City’s control of the game. Martinelli and Sterling are obviously different options out wide to Trossard and Arteta may favor one of those two over Trossard given that Arsenal will plan to hit City on the counter, plus their presence may stop Walker from marauding forward from right back.