Man City vs. Arsenal
Venue: Etihad stadium
Kick off: 2:15PM
After making the best start to a Premier League campaign of any side, Manchester City will aim to maintain their winning run when welcoming Arsenal to the Etihad Stadium this afternoon.
A record of 28 points from a possible 30 has been matched twice before, but the Citizens’ hugely impressive goal difference of +29 puts them out in front in what has been a truly incredible campaign thus far.
Try as he might, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for City boss Pep Guardiola – a perennial winner at both Barcelona and Bayern Munich – to play down his side’s chances of running away with the Premier League title this season.
Guardiola rightly pointed out that the current pacesetters won 10 on the spin to begin his first season in charge but, unlike 12 months ago, City have showed few signs of slowing down and they are continuing to brush away all comers.
The two-time Prem champs have netted 49 times in 16 matches overall during this near-perfect start to the season, leaving them five points clear at the top of the table, giving them a route into the last eight of the EFL Cup and with a last-16 spot to look forward to in the Champions League.
On the other hand, “character” tends to be the go-to word for Arsene Wenger when analysing Arsenal’s matches of late, having seen his side recover from a goal down three times in a row prior to Thursday’s stalemate at home to Red Star Belgrade.
Even the goalless draw with the Serbian side in this week’s reverse fixture at the Emirates Stadium was a decent enough result, even if it was met by a few boos from the home end, as Wenger’s men picked up the point needed to progress through to the last-32 stage.
Man City possible XI: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Otamendi, Delph, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, Jesus, Sane.
Arsenal possible XI: Cech, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Bellerin, Ramsey, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Ozil, Sanchez, Lacazette.