Arsenal – Manchester City
Arsenal are struggling and they are still without a permanent manager after the sacking of Unai Emery. The club is still being managed by the caretaker Fredrik Ljungberg while the board is negotiating with other managers. According to most of rumours, Chelsea’s ex-manager Carlo Ancelotti is among the favourites to arrive at the Emirates.
But now Arsenal must think about the game against Man City which they have on Sunday. Right now the Gunners are 9th in the league with 22 points, being 7 points behind the Top 4. Whoever comes to manage the team would have some serious catching up to do.
In their last game in the league Arsenal won. This was the first win for Freddie Ljungberg as well. The Gunners met West Ham United in a local derby and clinched a 3-1 win. Martinelli, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored for the visitors. In this game Ljungberg decided to trust Martinelli and Pepe in the starting line-up, leaving Alexandre Lacazette on the bench. It proved to be a good decision, because both Martinelli and Pepe scored.
More or less, Manchester City are already out of the title race. The champions are currently third in the league with 32 points, being 14 points behind the leader Liverpool. Taking into account how consistent are Liverpool and how inconsistent are Man City, we don’t think they can fight for the gold medals anymore.
In the previous round the Cityzens suffered their fourth loss for the season. Guardiola’s team hosted the local rival Manchester United and suffered a 1-2 loss at the Etihad, which was really dissapointing. Nicolas Otamendi scored City’s only goal in the game, but it was not enough.
We expect a good showdown between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Emirates on Sunday. Both teams are shaky at the moment, so let’s see what they are going to offer us.