After a routine win against Cardiff City, Arsenal will look to make it three wins in three league games when they take on Manchester City come Sunday.
Beating the title challengers will be easier said than done, but considering how Newcastle United exposed the Sky Blues’ defence, Arsenal will look to implement their game plan in the best possible way and come away from the Etihad with all three points.
Arsenal’s win against Cardiff coupled with Chelsea’s shocking 4-0 defeat against Bournemouth meant the Gunners climbed up to fourth in the league table, and the fans will hope the team can return to the top four after Chelsea’s win against Huddersfield took the Blues back into the top four.
Arsenal Team News
The Gunners have quite a few walking wounded, especially at the back. Rob Holding, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, and Hector Bellerin are unavailable, while Konstantinos Mavropanos and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are doubtful.
New loan signing Denis Suarez is expected to be in the squad, but it remains to be seen if Unai Emery will use him from the onset.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has trained and is close to a return as well.
Predicted Arsenal Lineup
Defence
Knowing that Arsenal don’t have the best players to perhaps play in the four at the back system, we could see a three at the back set-up against Manchester City.
Laurent Koscielny is fit to start after receiving a knock to his jaw against Manchester United in a Cup game last week, and he is likely to play alongside Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi.
Leno should keep his place in goal.
Midfield
Maitland-Niles is expected to recover and feature in the right wing-back position, while Sead Kolasinac might play on the left.
Lucas Torreira Matteo Guendouzi and Granit Xhaka will be responsible to stop Manchester City from playing through the middle, but will have to support the wing-backs as well, considering City are very good on the flanks.
Arsenal are likely to get some joy on the break, so the distribution during turnovers will need to be top notch come Sunday.
Suarez is likely to be in the squad, but it would be surprising if he makes the Arsenal lineup as he didn’t feature much for Barcelona and isn’t at his peak condition.
Attack
To test the City defence, both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should start up top. The duo have been in good form and work well in tandem.
Lacazette – Aubameyang
Kolasinac – Guendouzi – Xhaka – Torreira – Maitland-Niles
Monreal – Koscielny – Mustafi
Leno
