City will start the 5th fixture of this Premier League season on Sunday, at 16:00 (17:00 Central Europe hour and 18:00 Eastern Europe hour), playing home on Eastlands with Arsenal. Beside our home fixture, there will be some interesting games like Liverpool – Scum, Spurs – QPR or Chelsea versus Stoke.
Let’s look at the match officials and the league table for both of the teams :
Match Official for the game : Mike Dean
We had Dean in many games last season and he was flawless in every single one of them. Maybe the best ref in the Premiership. We won’t have any worries there ( + the ref of the game from 13.05.2012).
This fixture is a huge one, but a tricky one too for the CHAMPIONS. Every single game the last three seasons, when we got to play Arsenal, we caught them in a real good form. So far this season they are unbeaten, they look ok, more tight on the back and more united as a group than they were last year.
Podolski and the two wingers, Oxlade and Walcott look the main treat for our defence, while Cazorla might be a jolly joker for them. It all depends on which City player will take him out. Arsenal are an inferior team imho, but a better one than last year, even if they lost Van Persie.
All the eyes will be on Podolski and Cazorla.
Let’s take a look at our past games with Arsenal :
Past games :
Let’s talk about our last three home games with Arsenal :
2011-2012
Last year with Arsenal was a great game. City played home, in a cold December night, almost near Christmas with Arsenal. The only goal was scored by Dave Silva, after Mario owned Arsenal’s right side in his out lunatistic way. City were by far the better team, but that clown Szcz?sny manage to have a great game with us. I am calling him a clown, because you all know him, you all know what type of patethic keeper he really is. He got 8 goals from the most horrible team in the world. You all know what he does, just look at the last fixture Arsenal had with Southampton and you will see what “quality” he really has, but, without any sense or logic, he manages every time to have the game of his lifetime with us.
This game he went from post to post to stop Sergio, Nasri or Mario.
The last minutes were poor for us, Vermalen and RVP almost scored the equaliser, but Joey had a word on it.
2010-2011
Just three minutes in to the game, just after Tevez almost scored with a backhell, Clattenburg (who else?!) sent Boyata off after a last man fault. Boyata did bring down Chamachk, that is true, however, Vinnie was closing in and the Arsenal striker wasen’t going anywhere. Nasri, Song and Bendtner scored and Arsenal won 3-0, after they even missed a penalty from the same Nasri. City played 87 minutes with ten men, but couldn’t stop them from winning.
2009-2010
Well, you all know it, you all love it. City – Arsenal 4-2 and what a game from Adebayor. City went all over them from the start. Elbows, crosses, shots, you name it. Shaunie owned Clichy, Adeba stepped on RVP, Sagna didn’t knew what hit him when he was in front of Bellers. That was maybe the best game City had with Hughes as our manager.The glory of the mighty blues that day was huge, then it came… Adebayor just scored and made a run to the terrace where Arsenal fans were and showed them what he was made of. Great celebration, ugly gesture, but we won.
Let’s look at the “+” and “–“ of the teams:
City +
– Our home record.
– We have almost every player available and our squad value is superior
– better squad
City –
– our defence
– 3-5-2
– Some big names are out of shape.
Arsenal+
– They are getting better after a dreadful season
– Cazorla and Podolski
– It looks like their dressing room atmosphere has improved a lot.
Arsenal –
– Their defence and their gk.
– This is the real hard game they have this season (the Scouse one didn’t count that much).
– Giroud who looks very poor.
Possible starting lineups :
THE CHAMPIONS :
Arsenal:
Szcz?sny (Manone) – Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermalen, Gibbs – Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla – Gervinho, Walcott, Podolski.
Best odds :
Manchester City 1.80
draw 3.94
Arsenal 5.18
Media opinion on the game : They consider us favorites, however they expect us for Arsenal to give us a bad time, maybe getting a point here or three.
Personal opinion: I think we will win this game, but 1-0, 2-1 or something like that. It will be a close one. We are a better team than Arsenal, but we have huge defensive problems. Bobby will play 4-2-3-1, but i expect him to have the same problems he had this season. Our right side is the main part where we received goals so far, with Vinnie having problems, I hope to God that Mancio understood that he can’t get us to the next level playing 3-5-2 and i expect in a month for us to solve our defensive problems.
This will be a hard encounter for us, but i think and i am almost convinced we will deliver.
My personal bet will be Tevez and Dzeko to give us the points.
C’mon City!
Thanks to Bobby Brows again for this great preivew on behalf of www.mancityfans.net