Match Preview: Manchester City v Arsenal (Premier League)
|Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal visit Manchester City in the Premier League at the City of Manchester stadium later this afternoon.
Mark Hughes will be hoping his City side can capitalise on Arsenal’s up and down form this season in the Premiership. However, the Blues have also been inconsistent and go into this clash with the Gunners with only a point from their last four games in the Premier League after halting a run of three straight defeats last weekend in the 2-2 draw with Hull City at the KC Stadium. This slide in form sees City in 12th place in the table, but only a point off the relegation zone.
Gunners boss Wenger will be looking for his young Arsenal side to bounce straight back after losing 2-0 to Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium last week after beating European Champions Manchester United the week before. However, Arsenal are need to win if they are to close the nine-point gap on Chelsea and Liverpool at the top of the table.
City are unable to call on Martin Petrov (knee), Valeri Bojinov (calf), Michael Johnson (groin) or Daniel Sturridge (ankle) for the visit of the Gunners. Kasper Schmeichel is set to replace Joe Hart in goal for the Blues, with Hart ruled out for a month with an ankle injury.
Arsenal will be without long-term injury Tomas Rosicky (hamstring) along with defender Bacary Sagna (ankle). While Wenger will also be ruing the loss of Theo Walcott, who will be out for three months after dislocating his shoulder on International duty with England.
Emmanuel Adebayor is rested due to his International exploits, while Kolo Toure and former skipper William Gallas are also missing – the latter removed from the squad until further notice.
Spanish International Cesc Fabregas is suspended, but Wenger has Robin van Persie back from suspension, a massive boost for a depleted Gunners side.
Predicted Arsenal Line-Up:
Almunia
Hoyte – Djourou – Silvestre – Clichy
Diaby – Denilson – Song – Nasri
Bendtner – van Persie
Subs:
Fabianski, Gibbs, Lansbury, Wilshere, Ramsey, Vela, Simpson
Match Prediction: Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal
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Leave your views and predictions of this afternoon’s game in the comments section below.
Live coverage on GoonerTalk TV? This site just gets better and better 😉
haha, stay tuned 🙂 .
will the stream be of a good quality?
I can’t guarantee that they will be 100%, but yes, I think they should work fine.
Rambo has to at least come on today
pathetic it really is, that ball thro the middle is always on with us.
we have been lucky not to lose this game 4/5 nil,
I thought the BBC was suppossed to be un-biased but comments they come out with does not sound un-biased. Mark Bright in match against West Ham saying come on Harry when commenting on the forth coming game against the the lot down the road. Gallager now reckons Arsenal go down easily and seems to promote ‘Get in your faces football’. Well he should tell that to the likes of Edwardo or Diaby or Walcott or Sagnay who all have been hit by some dubious tackles since other ex-players recommended the way to play against Arsenal is to kick them up in the air. Shame on them – maybe they should take some of the responsibility for the players injuries. Arsenal will come good with players like this club has coming through. Be paitent gooners with a new captain this club will win things.
I can’t believe a player of such limited ability and personality as Almunia is captaining Arsenal. Sometimes I wonder if Wenger is trying to make me choke him to death?
We obviously can’t rely on the likes of Song or Bendtner, but when even Clichy plays badly, then you know there are a lot of things going wrong at Arsenal…
As far as I’m concerned our full backs have been terrible all season.
Mark Hughes and Arsene Wenger are both cunts in very different ways, and they both want shooting. Only difference is I would happily let Hughes bleed to death while I’d want Wenger to pull through but be unfit enough to continue with his football management career.
What team Arsene fielded today, under the circumstances, was just asking for trouble. How could he be so god damn fucking naive!!!
Go back home to France with William you useless
In Arsene we… must have no more success.