Morning all.
Man City thrashed Wolves 4-0 on the opening day of this campaign but then suffered two defeats, the first at Brighton followed by a home loss against Totts. City then signed the man mountain, 6’ 5” Gianluigi Donnarumma. The man who almost single-handedly prevented us from a second leg Champions League semi-final comeback in France just a few months ago. I’m still confused as to why PSG let him leave. Apparently he’s not very good with the ball at his feet which is something Arsenal are more than capable of testing today. Saying that, City have been more playing more direct this season, as have we.
City’s summer saw Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Ederson and Ilkay Gundogan depart on permanent deals while Jack Grealish and Manuel Akanji left on loan. As well as the big Italian, City signed James Trafford, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki and Rayan Ait-Nouri. Five outfielder players out, only three in.
As Pep Guardiola talked about trimming his squad in the summer, Mikel Arteta talked about adding numbers to his and he did. Well, Arsenal as a club did.
Two of City’s new signings are ruled out for today’s game as both Ait-Nouri and Cherki are injured, as is Marmoush. Rodri is a doubt too apparently.
Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Ben White are doubts for today’s game, while Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus remain sidelined for the foreseeable future. However, William Saliba should be available.
Arsenal go into this game with a good run of results against City behind them having not lost any of the last five. Back in February, we battered them 5-1 at The Emirates.
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme:
City have started this campaign in a 4-1-4-1 formation, with two attacking midfielders either side of fit-again Rodri. We have also seen one of their wingers drift inside when they build from the back, creating a box of four inside the engine room, designed to create overloads or to drag an opposition defender away from the last line.
This season, they seem prepared to bypass the press with a higher number of long-range passes, and Gianluigi Donnarumma’s arrival feels like an indication that playing short from the back is no longer essential. There are also signs they want to press higher with greater authority, and their five shot-ending high turnovers are the second-most in the division.
Haaland’s 19 shots in four games place him top of the Premier League rankings by seven, and with three more big chances (9) than anyone else, he is getting into great positions to score. Two more players we need to shackle closely are Jeremy Doku and Tijjani Reijnders. The latter is terrific at making late runs into the box, while Doku is a fine dribbler.
Have City cured the off-the-ball problems they experienced in 2024/25? It feels like that is a work in progress. They still look vulnerable to turnovers and counter-attacks, and have struggled to handle quality pressing on occasion, so it’s important that we get that aspect of our play spot on.
Mikel Arteta’s team has been pretty solid in defence with only Liverpool finding a way past David Raya so far and that was from a stunning free kick which on another day might have landed in row z. Defensively we’ve been excellent but in attack, I think the players are yet to really click. If today is the day that Viktor Gyokeres gets a lot of service, I fancy him to find a way past their big keeper but the key word in that is if. Team selection is anyone’s guess really, certainly in central defence and in attack. If Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and William Saliba are 100% fit, do they start, or do they wait their turn on the bench? I’m just glad it’s not my decision to make.
Guardiola will be more than aware of the threat his once assistant coach and his players have in every position just as Mikel Arteta will know what City’s strengths are. On paper this should be a cracking game but I’ve a feeling it’s more likely to be a game of cat and mouse as the two alleged master tacticians go head to head once more.
Catch up in the comments.
Will watch this from a bar in Spain , thankfully it means I will be spared the witterings of Neville and Carragher
Good morning Rico.
Somehow I feel neither Saka or Saliba will start this afternoon. Madueke and Mosquera have settled in well and, perhaps? deserve to start.
Colder, wetter and windier than of late, let’s hope our lads cope the better.
Hola Potter, uno mas Mahou por favor.
Lucky you Potter.
Morning to you and Cicero.
I think they deserve to start too..
Sunshine and a light breeze on the south coast. 😜
Si hombre pero no es Mahou aqui siempre una Estrella mas por mi y una cava por mi mujer .
But I will drink one for you too .
Mi ronda siguiente
I’ll need to insert google translate. 😜
I recognise the Estrella and Cava though. lol
To wet your appetite, W S L Manchester United Vs Arsenal live on B B C.1 2.30
Hoping to watch that one…
Morning Rico and amici’s, yes Pep has been saying lots of really nice, kind nice words about Arteta and Arsenal whilst all our ‘friends’ in the media have been bigging up our recent good record against City meanwhile everyone and their dog have been suggesting that this is finally going to be our year…
Every had the feeling that we’re being ‘set up’…?
Have the headlines already been written from Monday? You know : ‘Arteta can’t get over the line’ – ‘Arsenal bottle/blow it again’.
Yadda yadda yadda
Morning Kev, yep, I have seen all the headlines and words from Pep about how much money we have spent. I ignore it. Lol
I’m sure Arteta would love to play Saliba,the form of Mosquera means we don’t have to risk him if not 100%
The other big thing for me is to get the best out of Eze.
I feel confident,but I’m always confident with this team.
Big game,the media agenda makes me sick.
If Odegaard is not fit, perhaps Eze will start in midfield rather than out wide.
Good call,he often comes good in big games too.
So no Eze and Odegaard still not fit,very strong bench though,I can’t remember a stronger one.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Merino, Madueke, Trossard, Gyokeres.
Substitutes: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Saka, Eze, Martinelli, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly.
Manchester City: Donnarumma, O’Reilly, Dias, Khusanov, Gvardiol, Rodri, Reijnders, Foden, Silva, Doku, Haaland.
Substitutes: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Gonzalez, Savinho, Nunes, Bobb, Mukasa, Lewis.
Xhaka justt booked for nothing . Still a target
So Rice, Merino and Madueke are supposed to created while Eze and Nwaneri are on the bench. Reminds me of the Liverpool game.
It is a rather passive team selection
Afternoon Rico and all. it’s 1:30 am in oz fingers crossed for a win.
Afternoon Geoff, I guess you are off to bed..
Too simple for City..
We aren’t getting a penalty today.
Gillet on VAR
I was really looking forward to this game but now I can’t think why. Turgid is the only word to describe our play.
For a player of his size, William Saliba’s heading is bang average
40 minutes before we wake up, Arteta needs to change something,
Our defenders were too slow leading to there first goal.
Rico @ 4:27. Passive lineups works only against small teams and teams lacking ambition. Surely I thought he will bring Martinelli on at halftime to stretch their defense.
At last, goal, lets hope for the second
This ref if trying his best to help city
In the end a draw, I will take that draw, it’s 3:30 am in oz good night all. have to be up by 7am
Didnt deserve that point , City closed the match down and we played into their trap . Needed some pace as Martinelli proved . That is the one thing Gyokeres doesn’t have .
Obi, I was surprised, I think we all were. Much better second half but Guardiola threw on every defender to stop us. Martinelli, I’m so pleased for him again.
Sometimes you just know it’s not Trossard’s day, nothing went right for him. Martinelli should always start ahead of him.
We deserved the point for our persistence in the second half.
Haaland was knackered by the time he was hooked off, apart from the goal he contributed zilch. He needs to work on his fitness and improve his stamina.
Martinelli is our super sub…
The midfield trio of Zubimendi, Merino and Rice doesn’t work. You can play two, but not three. Zubimendi and Merino works. Rice and Zubimendi works. Rice and Merino combo doesn’t. In effect Arteta had 7 defenders on the pitch. 4 at the back and 3 in the midfield. Add to that there were no creative players on the pitch for Arsenal. Right from the onset he was playing not to lose.
Gyokeres can’t not be isolated in the premier league, he doesn’t have the after burners/ movement to do it alone, let Martinelli or Eze play through the middle to support him.
On MotD it was mentioned that Arsenal had won only one of ten PL games where Merino and Rice had started the game together…
On the face of it that’s a damming stat but that’s where you have to be careful to decipher ‘the narrative’.
For example how many of those games did we lose? Who did we play? Did we have anyone sent off? Were most of those 10 games during the period when we struggled to score as Merino was playing as an emergency forward as all our forwards were injured?
And so on…
That midfield was also the same midfield that Arteta picked to beat Athletic Bilbao in midweek – did anyone complain then?
I wasn’t sure about that starting XI but Merino and Rice wasn’t the reason as I thought that Martinelli should have started. Saliba didn’t have a great game, Big Gabby wasn’t as dominant, Calafiori didn’t have a great game, the first 45 was pretty sterile stuff and Man City have to be partly to blame as they also played quite negatively- as did Liverpool at Anfield. Is that a pattern against us?
It seems that even the so called big teams are now playing the mid-block stifling counter-attacking game that the smaller clubs employ to frustrate us whilst we’ve still not worked out an effective cure to these tactics?
Last season Man City took us on and we thrashed them 5-1, Pep made sure that didn’t happen again.
That felt like a good draw in the end,in truth we were dire at times,others used the word turgid which sums it up.
The second time in 5 days Martinelli comes off the bench to save us,he is a fantastic impact sub. This time set up by Eze,who most of us thought should have been on from the start. Merino is a fantastic player but Eze is in the form of his life.
Good point by Kev about tactics against us,I thought it was smart from Pep,a clever coach changes plans according to the opponent.
It is down to us to overcome this,we can’t expect teams to make it easy,the audacity of them.
The first half we got we deserved but the second half we changed gear and gave City a run for there money, a draw was fair result, but one thing I did notice was the time wasting by cities Keeper they really wanted to play at a slower pace,
Limey, we’ve had two games now where the subs have come on and changed the game, regarding Eze, he had a forgettable game in Spain, albeit from the left-wing, this time he played centrally and was far more effective, Madueke has been great, but if I’m being super critical he’s not scored or had an assist, let’s see how things go with Bakayo back in the team, I think we’re still at a stage where the new guys are settling into the team, the old guys are still developing understandings with the new guys, we actually miss Havertz in these types of games.
Off topic here.
Three expensive strikers moved in the summer for a total off £253 million.
Between them they have scored three goals in all competitions so far.
Isak £125million zero goals.
Sesko £75 million zero goals.
Gyokeres £55 million three goals.
That’s approximately £84 million per goal. Good value? Sustainable?
What do you think?
Morning, I could see no way through then, Eze produces a great ball and Martinelli didn’t just finish sublime, but managed to perfectly keep onside, so great play by our likeable winger who accepted being rested and left his speaking for on the pitch. Great attitude, love that guy.
Where is loudmouth Schmeichal moaning that Man City are turning the game ugly with a 5 5 0 formation, like he said when Arsenal played Liverpool? Damned hypocrite.
Hi All. There are a lot of nuisances that go into stats. However, sometimes there are truths. Regarding Kev at 1:27. We have to differentiate between when Merino plays as a striker vs. when he plays in the midfield. Yes, they won at Bilbao, but the first half was horrible, with no creativity, service, or movement. When we looked at the times we couldn’t score Saka and Odegaard were out, which lead to squad imbalance because Arteta refused to play Nwaneri as a 10 or play Martinelli as a false 9 even with Havertz also out. The argument that Merino and Zubimendi work for Spain, fails to realize that as good as Rice is, his skills set and Pedro López’s are different. Pedri is a playmaker that can dribble, pass and tackle when he has to. He’s a major reason why the trio works for Spain. Arsenal is stagnant when, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Saka, Martinelli or Eze are not on the field, whereas Spain has abundance of creativity. Play Merino if you have to, but play him further up or play two midfielders. In three games with that lineup the team has struggled. 7 defensive minded players on the pitch yesterday and Reijnders runs through them all, no one even thought about taking a yellow. To me, what Pep, Slot or any other manager do, does not matter. All that matter is what our manager does. If something doesn’t work adjust and use all the talents you have been given, simple.
Cicero, interesting point regarding those three strikers, notable also the narrative over all three of them, Sesko and Isak have had a fairly favourable critique so far, whereas you can see the negativity building around Gyokeres, it’s as if the media are wishing for Viktor to play badly so they can get the ‘waste of money’ or ‘flat track bully’ tropes going across social media.
We need to find somebody with the ability, or guts, to run at defenders with the ball. Create a bit of panic, take the ball into contact, draw fouls, perhaps even win a penalty. Passing the ball countless times in a match doesn’t guarantee anything other than sterility.