Key events
8 min “If this is indeed the last time we see Zinchenko in an Arsenal shirt, as the rumours seem to have it, then I suppose it might be in some way instructive to compare him with Andrey Arshavin,” begins Charles Antaki. “Both came in as a bit of a surprise, both made an immediate impact, and both sort of fizzled out. But then one left his playing career to support Vladimir Putin, while the other will carry on his desperate campaign to try to interest people in what’s happening in Ukraine. Both good as footballers, of course, but then the qualities diverge.”
6 min: Martinelli has a goal disallowed! It was a lovely finish, teased over Ortega with the outside of the boot after running onto Odegaard’s short through pass, but he was clearly offside.
4 min You might argue, as Gary Neville has on Sky, that Havertz didn’t have the confidence to shoot himself. I’d prefer to see it as evidence of one of his greatest qualities; his ability to keep his brain in the fridge even when he’s in the opposition penalty area.
Ortega gave the ball to Stones, who played a risky angled pass to Akanji 25 yards from goal. He dithered for a split second and was robbed by Trossard, with Rice pushing the ball through to Havertz – being played onside by Stones – on the left side of the area. He drew Ortega and squared the ball to Odegaard, who scored gleefully from about 10 yards.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Man City (Odegaard 2)
Arsenal lead after a mistake from Manuel Akanji!
1 min Havertz, 20 yards out, whistles a half-volley straight at Ortega. Decent effort.
1 min City kick off from left to right as we watch. Savinho has started on the left, with Foden on the right and Marmoush as the No10.
“Good morning from Pittsburgh!” writes Eric Peterson. “My takeaway from Jonathan Liew’s observations isn’t that Pep Guardiola has switched the sequence of his tactical Plan A and Plan B, but that you need both plans to get the best out of each one.
“You get more room and time for your over-the-top balls when the opponent knows you can tiki-taka through them like a sieve, and you get more space for your midfield artists when the opposition knows your fullbacks and wingers can flick the sprinkles off an ice cream cone from 60 yards away.
“It takes two, no matter which order you put them. Dec and Ant, Saunders and French, Laurie and Fry? No matter, just so long as they’re both there.”
Tell that to Zig and Zag.
A reminder of the teams ahead of kick off
Arsenal (possible 4-3-3) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard.
Substitutes: Calafiori, Jorginho, Kiwior, Merino, Neto, Nwaneri, Sterling, Tierney, Zinchenko.
Manchester City (possible 4-3-3) Ortega; Nunes, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Foden, Kovacic, Bernardo Silva; Savinho, Haaland, Marmoush,
Substitutes: Carson, De Bruyne, Grealish, Gundogan, Khusanov, Lewis, McAtee, O’Reilly, Vitor Reis.
Referee Peter Bankes.
Sky have Manchester City’s formation as 4-2-3-1 rather than 4-3-3, with Phil Foden as the No10. It’ll might end up being a hybrid of the two.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1) Ortega; Nunes, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Bernardo Silva, Kovacic; Savinho, Foden, Marmoush; Haaland.
As does Pep Guardiola
There are places in the Premier League – this is one of them – that are in the calendar from the start of the season. They’ve had the same manager, Mikel, is it five or six years? The last two years they’ve been getting better and they were close, and they are still fighting Liverpool. It’s an exceptional team in all departments, but at the same time we are playing for something important as well.
It will be so intense. The way they play, you have to challenge them. It will be quite similar [to September], I would say.
Mikel Arteta speaks
We know what’s at stake. We are used to playing this type of game so we know what we need to do to win: be better than the opposition and create the atmosphere that we need here.
Emotionally, it’s a game where you have to be in control. There will be different phrases, micro games to be played: things we can do with the ball, how we can dominate the game, how composed we are, set-pieces, how we adapt.
Here’s the Premier League table going into this afternoon’s game
Today’s Premier League results
‘There should be a little bit of heat sometimes’
Read Jonathan Liew on Omar Marmoush
Now defences have to deal with the threat of Haaland dropping deep and Marmoush running in behind, or Marmoush staying wide and Haaland running in behind, or both running in behind, or both tucking in and Phil Foden running in behind, or some other combination of mayhem that exists only in Guardiola’s head. In essence City are becoming a primarily direct team with a short-passing game as their backup, whereas until recently it was the other way around.
Pep Guardiola on the 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September
The game was emotional for Erling and it’s not easy when you have 90 minutes and you know Gabriel and the central defenders push him and hug him and hug him and kiss him, and these kinds of things. He had to react. Arsenal are a physical team – in a good way in many aspects – and at the end what happened through the emotions happened. So it’s done.
Whose bright idea was it to schedule a football match at the business end of the transfer window?
“I am following the buildup with you from Cancun, and hoping the hotel bar has Max so I can watch most of the match,” writes my colleague Philip Cornwall. “But the coach to the airport picks us up about 15 minutes before the final whistle. The question is, will you and the MBM be worth paying five pounds to EE for, or do I wait for the airport to see how it finished?”
I’ll take the temperature of the game after 70 minutes and let you know. If it’s as hot as the return game it’ll worth every all 300 pennies.
Arsenal and City met earlier today in the WSL. Another seven-goal thriller please lads!
Team news
David Raya has recovered and will be in net for Arsenal – but Ederson is unfit to Stefen Ortega starts in goal for Manchester City. Omar Marmoush is preferred to Kevin De Bruyne.
Raya’s return means Arsenal make a single change from last weekend’s win at Wolves, with the fit-again Martin Odegaard in for Ethan Nwaneri. Pep Guardiola makes three changes to the City team that beat Chelsea 3-1 eight days ago: Ortega for Ederson, John Stones for Abdukodir Khusanov and Savinho for Ilkay Gundogan.
Arsenal (possible 4-3-3) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Martinelli, Havertz, Trossard.
Substitutes: Calafiori, Jorginho, Kiwior, Merino, Neto, Nwaneri, Sterling, Tierney, Zinchenko.
Manchester City (possible 4-3-3) Ortega; Nunes, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Foden, Kovacic, Bernardo Silva; Savinho, Haaland, Marmoush,
Substitutes: Carson, De Bruyne, Grealish, Gundogan, Khusanov, Lewis, McAtee, O’Reilly, Vitor Reis.
Referee Peter Bankes.
Preamble
When Arsenal and Manchester City slugged it out at the Etihad in September, it was clear the return fixture had the potential to be a title decider. But few of us expected a third party to be involved. Liverpool lead the Premier League by nine points with 15 games remaining and are tantalisingly close to their 20th league championship. For Arsenal, it’s simple: if they don’t win this afternoon, slim will leave town and their title hopes will be over for another year.
They may already be over, such is Liverpool’s relentless excellence. But Arsenal v City has become an event in itself. I can’t be the only person getting I’ll See You Out There’ vibes about this match. That famous game, played 20 years ago yesterday, was also between Arsenal and Manchester’s finest; it was the return fixture after a spiteful, controversial game in Manchester; and both teams had been blindsided by a rival with a new manager who were romping away with the title.
City are desperate to play in the Champions League next season and need every point they can get. But this is about more than points. Even if this was a mid-table game with nothing riding on it, they would be desperate to beat each other.
Kick off 4.30pm.