Match preview: Manchester City vs Arsenal

This Sunday, two teams who have followed two very different paths to success, will see their paths intersect at the Etihad Stadium. Both clubs will come into this game with different levels of confidence after experiencing mixed results from the last week. On one hand you have Manchester City, who got knocked out of the UEFA Champions league and then in then saw their lead cut to two points after losing to Chelsea in the premier league. Arsenal on the other hand have been in excellent form recently, and since their defeat t0 Spurs - Arsenal have been on an amazing 8 match unbeaten run. This match will surely turn out to be a great battle between the two teams, who boasts of some quality players in all areas of the field.

The Keepers

Joe Hart and Wojciech Szczesny can be expected to be kept busy during the game tomorrow. If the game proves to be an open one, the keepers will be in the thick of the action. Both teams have strikers, who on their day can destroy any defence. RVP, Aguero & Co will be expected to keep the keepers busy. One important save could make the difference between 3 points and none.

Arsenal Player to Watch

Alex Song - Surprised? I bet you were expecting to read RVP, but I got you there. Well, in all seriousness Alex Song has recently been in very good form, and has grabbed the headlines for some of his forays into the attacking half and chipping in a few assists. His run against Dortmund and his exquisite pass against Everton showed that he wasn’t JUST a defensive midfielder and that he had some creativity hidden inside him. Though, against Man City it will be his defensive skills and not his creativity that will be under scrutiny. His defensive grit against Everton helped Arsenal to a win, and Arsene Wenger will be looking up to him to keep the forward runs of Yaya Toure to a minimum.

Manchester City Player to Watch

Samir Nasri - If he does get to start it will be interesting to see how he performs. He will surely be looking to silence the Gunner fans mocking him with the 25 million benchwarmer tag. Nasri had a good start to his City career, but recently has gone off the boil and was disappointing in the game against Arsenal in the Carling Cup. He played no part in the all important game against Chelsea either. However, with Arsenal starting without any regular full-back Mancini maybe tempted to deploy Nasri to exploit this weakness. If he does start or come off the bench, he will be expected to receive some abuse from the away fans, but how he responds to it this time will be interesting to watch.

The Key Battle

Robin Van Persie is currently in the form of his life scoring goals for fun, while the Man City defence has been very frugal this season, and have conceded only 15 goals this season in 15 games(i.e. 1 goal per game). It will be interesting to see how Mancini tackles with the threat of RVP, and the Man City defence will be looking towards their Captain Vincent Kompany to keep RVP from scoring. I would say good Luck with that City!

My Prediction

Both the teams have great attacking talent and speed in their respective teams. Add to that the fact that both are suffering from injuries/suspensions in the full back area and we could be in for thriller of a match with lots of goals. If both teams, especially Man City are to go out all guns blazing, we could witness one of the best games of this season.

Final Result- 3-3