3 things Arsenal must do to stand a chance against Manchester City

#2 Deploy a 4-3-3 formation

In the absence of Xhaka, Torreira will have to control and lead his counterparts in midfield

Under Unai Emery, the Gunners deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation quite often. It was the Spaniard's most preferred formation, and in his first season, the double-pivot of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka was a huge hit. However, Freddie Ljungberg will have to change things up tomorrow.

Now that Granit Xhaka has been ruled out for the Manchester City game and Dani Ceballos still recovering from a hamstring injury, Arsenal only has three quality midfielders left in their ranks, i.e Matteo Guendouzi, Joe Willock and Lucas Torreira.

Without the ball, Arsenal must defend in a 4-4-2 but on paper, a 4-3-3 would be best suited for this game as Joe Willock can play the No. 8 role whilst Torreira is the deep-lying midfielder and Guendouzi sits ahead of Torreira with the responsibility of making forward passes.

Pep Guardiola sets up his team to control the game. Especially in midfield, City outnumber and outmuscle the opposition team so they can control the tempo of the game, while fullbacks provide the width and stretch the opposition defence. To win against the Citizens, you have to win against their midfield.

Nullifying Rodrigo from Pep Guardiola's system would not have a massive impact, although it would create some difficulties for Rodri's counterparts as now David Silva and De Bruyne will have to drop back to collect the ball from the defence. Mesut Ozil will have to be sacrificed in order to play in a 4-3-3 system.