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With just a few days to go before the start of the new English Premier League season, we look at the Super Sunday clash between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal
Arsenal will be hoping to start the season on a positive note at home against champions Manchester City. New manager Unai Emery will particularly want to make a statement against Pep Guardiola, a coach he has not won a competitive match against.
Emery has spent the most part of the preseason drilling his players and infusing in them his footballing philosophies and ideas to help them become a better team. There were a lot of positives in the pre-season games the Gunners played, especially the seamless induction of young players like Matteo Guendouzi and Emile Rowe Smith into the first team.
Another advantage that Emery probably has going into Sunday's game, and by extension the rest of the season, is the fact he has had more time working with most of the players who were not on World Cup duty for their national teams. This could be crucial for the new manager in charge to bring back the glory days of the club.
With the tactical prowess of Emery in sharp contrast to Arsene Wenger, his successor, you can expect the Gunners not to shy away from taking the game to Guardiola's men.
Manchester City
No one needs to be reminded of how Guardiola's team blew everyone out of the title race last year, and they are huge favorites going into this match. The traditional curtain raiser to the top flight season in England - the Community Shield game between Manchester City and Chelsea - was an indication that Guardiola's team will still be the team to beat.
City showed against Chelsea that they are going to continue from where they left off last season. So we can expect their game against Arsenal to be a mouth-watering encounter.
Prediction
In recent seasons, Arsenal have not won the opening game of the season, with the exception of last season where they had to come from behind twice to defeat Leicester City 4-3 at the Emirates. That is a worry because this match is against the almighty Manchester City.
However, I expect to see a different Arsenal team under Emery with no apprehensions or tentativeness, unlike Arsene Wenger's teams. Something in my guts tells me that Arsenal will just nick this one.
I am predicting a 2-1 win in favor of the Gunners.
