Etihad Stadium is the venue as Manchester City and Arsenal go head-to-head in a mouth-watering Premier League clash on Saturday, and you can get the top online betting offers for this game as well as all the other Premier League games this weekend.
Pressure has ramped up on Mikel Arteta following the Gunners’ disastrous start to the season.
Arsenal now face one of the toughest tests in English football, with the Spaniard’s future in the capital hanging by a thread.
Meanwhile, the Cityzens have experienced mixed fortunes across their opening two Premier League outings.
But they look to be in pole position to establish some consistency starting this weekend.
Manchester City Preview
In a typical ‘Man City’ fashion, Pep Guardiola’s side responded to a disappointing 1-0 opening day loss to Tottenham with a 5-0 thrashing of newcomers Norwich City last time out.
Yet, an inconsistent start to the season has extended City’s topsy-turvy form starting from the backend of last season that has witnessed them alternate victories and defeats in seven Premier League games in a row.
On the brighter side, the reigning English champions have won each of their last two home top-flight matches by the identical 5-0 scoreline and could rack up three 5+ goal margin triumphs for the second time in the club’s history.
Delivering action from the get-go, the hosts drew first blood in 16 of their 19 home Premier League outings last season, which was the case in their Matchday 2 thumping of Norwich.
Despite their flying home starts, Guardiola’s side unexpectedly returned more points on the road (45) than at the Etihad (41) in 2020/21.
Arsenal Preview
Arteta has so far failed to justify Arsenal’s heavy investments in the summer, with his side suffering identical 2-0 losses to debutants Brentford and Chelsea, respectively.
After setting an unwanted club, becoming the first manager to see the Gunners lose their opening two top-flight games ‘to nil,’ Arteta faces the prospect of digging his own grave here.
It’s been 66 years since Arsenal last started a new league campaign with three consecutive defeats, though a return of several first-team stars gives the travelling fans some hope heading into this clash.
Even though they go into proceedings as one of just four Premier League sides yet to score this season, the Londoners cannot be accused of a lack of trying.
Indeed, Arteta’s men have attempted 28 shots against Brentford and Chelsea combined without hitting the net.
That could change here following high-profile returns of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Martin Odegaard.
The star forward duo painted their competitive seasonal debuts with flying colors, netting four of Arsenal’s six goals in the midweek’s demolition of West Brom.
Manchester City vs Arsenal Head-to-Head
Since Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud catapulted Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal to a 2-0 victory at the Etihad in January 2015, trips to Manchester have become a nightmare for the Londoners.
The Gunners have lost five Premier League visits to this venue on the trot by an aggregate score of 12-3, failing to get on the scoresheet in the last two.
Home and away, Arsenal have lost eight consecutive top-flight meetings with Man City – they have never suffered nine straight Premier League defeats versus a specific opposition.
Manchester City vs Arsenal Predicted Line-ups
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson Moraes; Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Joao Cancelo; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Jack Grealish; Gabriel Jesus, Ferran Torres, Raheem Sterling.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Bernd Leno; Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Pablo Mari, Nuno Tavares; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pepe, Martin Odegaard, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang; Alexandre Lacazette.
