Arsenal vs Manchester City

Arsenal Vs Manchester City
Sunday 16:00 BST
Emirates Stadium
Referee: Martin Atkinson ( 80 yellows and 8 red card this season)

Arsenal Form guide: LWWWWW
Manchester City Form guide: DDWLWW



The Beginning of the End

Once a famous man said, Pressure is playing for ten dollars when you don't have a dime in your pocket. He certainly wasn't talking about Arsenal, however i see a connection between them. Now, many would insist we are not under the same amount of pressure as Tottenham or Chelsea, but i would beg to differ. Winning the last 8 games out of 7 has lifted up the spirits, probably has healed some of the wounds but it has also made us a bit delusional. Mocking Tottenham would be understandable, but When the talks of Taking over Manchester City popped up, then it went a bit over the top and it won't be completely wrong to say that the Team itself got complacent. The performance against QPR was shambolic, it was like returning back to August. This is what we need to stop, The Marathon hasn't finished and we need to put that in our mind and keep going. We are entering the final and perhaps the most crucial part of the season. It is the beginning of the end.

Arsenal Host Manchester City on Sunday, in a match where both side needs to win without a question. I would argue the title is gone to the red part of the manchester, and perhaps the city players themselves know this but They won't admit it. In a way this can be good for us because the morale of their players will be down, and if it isn't then we will be down for a long night. Now, i am not saying Man city are going to crush us, but if they think they can go for the title and the City of pre Jan turns up, not to mention the Arsenal against Qpr comes with it. We will have problems. Major problems. However City's away form has been pretty average, they are beatable and if the Good Arsenal turns up. We will beat them.

Team News

Arsenal dont really have any fresh injury from the QPR game, and there is no one coming back either with Diaby n Coquelin another 10 days away.

Aguero and kompany will be fit for the Arsenal match and with Tevez reaching full fitness, he may start alongside Aguero.


Probable Teams (guardian)




Match facts (guardian)

• Since their last league win at Arsenal in October 1975, City have scored just nine goals in 26 visits to north London

• If he scores in this match, Robin van Persie will become only the fourth player to score against 17 different teams in a Premier League season – after Andy Cole (1993-94), Alan Shearer (1995-96) and Ian Wright (1996-97)

• There have been three red cards in the last three league meetings between these sides

•Arsenal have failed to score in five of their last six games against City in all competitions, including the last three at the Emirates
Stadium

• Before Christmas David Silva scored five goals and provided eight assists but since Christmas he has not scored any goals and has managed just four assists

Match Facts from BBC

Arsenal

• Theo Walcott's goal last week was Arsenal's 10th league
  goal by an Englishman this season, equalling last season's total. The
  last season in which at least 11 goals were scored by English players
  for Arsenal was 1997-1998 when they got 24.
  
• Walcott has scored or assisted 15 league goals this season. Wayne Rooney is the only Englishman to have contributed more.
  
• Robin van Persie has gone three league games without a goal
  for the first time this season. Manchester City are one of only three
  teams that he has not scored against this season in the league, along
  with Fulham and Wolves. If he does score he will become only the fourth
  player to score against 17 different teams in a Premier League season
  (after Andrew Cole 1993-94, Alan Shearer 1994-95 and Wright 1996-97).
  

Manchester City

• City have failed to win any of the four games in which Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko have started together this season.
  
• Roberto Mancini's side have scored 31 of their last 36 league goals at home.
  
• Before Christmas, David Silva scored five goals and
  provided eight assists for Manchester City. Since Christmas he has
  failed to score and provided only four assists.
  

Final Words

This is a must win match, needless to say. We have Tottenham, Chelsea n Newcastle breathing down our necks. We can not afford to slip up and with our shitty run in, we need to take maximum amount of points.

Gonna be an Arsenal fan for 90 minutes on Sunday.

Hope you lot smash them!

I think both sides would be happy with a draw. Well City should even though they probably won't. I reckon 2-2.

Had we won at QPR, then we would have been content with a draw against City. But since we didn't win, this game has become a must-win.

I believe the winner of this game will be who handles the pressure the best. Tottenham play away to Sunderland on Saturday and they could be ahead of us by three points or on the same number of points having played a game more. So we'd be under pressure to either make up the defecit or take advantage of their slip up.

Man Utd are at home to QPR before City's game against us, and they will most likely face a situation where if they don't beat us, they'll be 8 points behind and left with very little chance of winning the title. It's a massive game and there's no excuses for the team not being fully motivated to win.

If we play to our best, I'm confident we will win. City's away form has been disappointing recently, while we're a much better team than when we played them in the Carling Cup and at the Eithad (and arguably we should have got better results in both of those games).

Anything but a win would be almost disastrous, in my opinion. Spurs are on the same number of points than and could go three clear if we lose. Newcasltle would only be two points behind, and Chelsea would be three behind us should they win. That would be a bit too close for comfort.

Nice preview RG.

Its a must win, without doubt. By the time the game kicks off, Chelsea will be toooo close, and Tottenham could be (although Sunderland away is tough) 3 points ahead. Just shows how fast things can change even after our great run of form.

Silva's been pretty meh for them these couple of weeks, but if we can shut down the supply to Aguero, it would increase our chances. And will De Jong really start? Is Barry injured?

For our attack, I don't see Walcott doing much damage to Clichy, but if we could switch Chamberlain to the right, his trickery could work. I remember when we were playing United @ home, Walcott was having trouble beating Evra, but once Chamberlain switched over, he beat him 3 or 4 times. Clichy may be quick, but he's still mistake prone.

Play with passion and do not make stupid mistake. Aguero and Tevez are my biggest fear along with yaya and silva . Those will pull out a great performance.

Gervinho or Oxalade ?? i don't know

Must win for both team, here hoping City awful away form continue.

Amar wrote:Nice preview RG.

Its a must win, without doubt. By the time the game kicks off, Chelsea will be toooo close, and Tottenham could be (although Sunderland away is tough) 3 points ahead. Just shows how fast things can change even after our great run of form.

Silva's been pretty meh for them these couple of weeks, but if we can shut down the supply to Aguero, it would increase our chances. And will De Jong really start? Is Barry injured?

For our attack, I don't see Walcott doing much damage to Clichy, but if we could switch Chamberlain to the right, his trickery could work. I remember when we were playing United @ home, Walcott was having trouble beating Evra, but once Chamberlain switched over, he beat him 3 or 4 times. Clichy may be quick, but he's still mistake prone.

Would not mind seeing us start like this

Szczesny
Sagna kos TV Gibbs
Arteta Rosicky Song
OX RVP Gervihno

When we go to sub bring in Walcott for either Artetta (preferable) or Rosicky. Move OX to the middle and let Walcott run. Into the second half Clichy should be confused by OX so let him deal with the speed of Walcott.

Great job RG hope we'll beat em even thought it won't be that easy but any City are under pressure more than us now ...sooo ..u know ! It's our Chance guysssss..imo

Time to take away their silverware and show Nasri that his move did not lead to greener pastures

lol guys, see what someone said on bluemoon( citeh forum)

Arsenal key players are as follows:
RVP is by far their best by far.
Then there are 3 groups of varying good players: The Form Players, The Consistent Players, and The Good but often injured players.

In the consistency department you have Koscielny, Song and Artetta as the 3 standouts.
In the form department: Rosiscky, Ox Chamberlain are the 2 special ones
In the GBI: Vermaleen, Sagna, Santos and Gibbs are all included.

From the above group, you'd get most of those who can hurt us. ANd there is Walcott. A poor player who blows hot every once in a while, but lives on English hype.

sadly true

aleumdance wrote:lol guys, see what someone said on bluemoon( citeh forum)

Arsenal key players are as follows:
RVP is by far their best by far.
Then there are 3 groups of varying good players: The Form Players, The Consistent Players, and The Good but often injured players.

In the consistency department you have Koscielny, Song and Artetta as the 3 standouts.
In the form department: Rosiscky, Ox Chamberlain are the 2 special ones
In the GBI: Vermaleen, Sagna, Santos and Gibbs are all included.

From the above group, you'd get most of those who can hurt us. ANd there is Walcott. A poor player who blows hot every once in a while, but lives on English hype.

sadly true

really cant argue too much with that assessment. a sensible citeh fan perhaps....

Don't see how Ox could be grouped as a "form" player, considering he's only 18 and just making his breakthrough into the team. Walcott being a "poor" player is also complete bollocks, but I expect as much from most fans nowadays.

Vermaelen and Sagna aren't often injured, either. One long-term injury for the two of them doesn't suddenly make them injury prone. That leg break Sagna suffered is pretty much the only major injury Sagna has had in his whole Arsenal career.

theo isnt living on the english hype, the media hates him.

He has been one of our better players this season.

Great job RG.

This is type of games us fans live for going against the best teams, we cant afford to lose points here, 3 teams are fighting for our spot. We can beat them as long as Ramsey does not play.

RealGunner wrote:theo isnt living on the english hype, the media hates him.

He has been one of our better players this season.

One our better players every 3 games.

Walcott's 10 goals and 11 assists are totals only bested by van Persie. People keep calling him an average player, ignoring the fact that any player that reaches double figuers for goals and assists is a more than good player and is a feat accomplished by very few during the course of a season.

Moreover, this is the second season in a row Walcott has done that. He got 13 goals and 10 assist last season, and with seven games to go he could easily score more goals. 15+ goals from a winger is a great return, especially from a supposedly "poor" player. Sure, it's not quite up to Pires or Ljungberg standards, but it's pretty darn good.

thanks everyone btw. Really appreciate the response.

GoonerJay29 wrote:Walcott's 10 goals and 11 assists are totals only bested by van Persie. People keep calling him an average player, ignoring the fact that any player that reaches double figuers for goals and assists is a more than good player and is a feat accomplished by very few during the course of a season.

Moreover, this is the second season in a row Walcott has done that. He got 13 goals and 10 assist last season, and with seven games to go he could easily score more goals. 15+ goals from a winger is a great return, especially from a supposedly "poor" player. Sure, it's not quite up to Pires or Ljungberg standards, but it's pretty darn good.

walcott is pretty much in the category of form players that the city fan came up with. when he's good, he's really good, and when he's bad he's just plain useless. he's been terribly inconsistent up until a little after the beginning of the calendar year where he's given us more good performances than bad.

but let's not lie to ourselves and pretend that theo didn't have terrible games and still come up with a random assist. it happened too frequently. numbers do lie sometimes.

i agree and i certainly think he's better than average but there have been too many games where he's come up missing. not to mention blown chances at goal

I dont know how a player can be good one game and next useless over and over again.

Walcott can score more if he stops running in to players and all he has is one move, if he had half of skills of Oxlade he would have been unstoppable.

I am sorry for picking on Walcott, he can become the player we all want him to become, he has all the help no reason for him not to become WC player.

Great job RG!

Really annoyed that I probably won't be able to watch as it's one of my most highly anticipated matches of the year and now I'll be stuck in the south of Lebanon with slow internet in a crappy internet store with dozens of children screaming around me while I try to find a decent stream that won't cause my computer to melt down. That's IF I get there in time and don't spend the entire match's time on the way to the south.

Sorry about that^ pretty amped about this game

Really surprised that Santos and Sagna were in the GBI section for them. Just shows how little they actually know about our squad as I don't rate Gibbs and Santos anywhere nearly as highly as Verminator and Sagna and wouldn't consider any of them injury prone with the exception of Gibbs even though that's natural in someone so young.

The assessments on OX and Theo are all wrong and I hope they drop Moneybag jaws tomorrow provided they both play and Wenger doesn't experiment with Benayoun and Ramsey on the wings or something else to that effect

Nice work RG.

I think this game is very tough to call/predict. Probably has draw written all over it.

City away form, Arsenal home form...we should win. But City will play with De Jong, Barry and Yaya I'm predicting, meaning more defensive/harder to break down.

We really could have done with beating QPR last weekend, but 3 points here will almost make up for that defeat.

I'm confident going into this game, that we won't lose, but also, that we can win. Must start AOC imo.

I'm glad i'll be at work tomorrow while the game is on. Can't stand this kind of tension

Lex wrote:I'm glad i'll be at work tomorrow while the game is on. Can't stand this kind of tension

You'll just be stressing at work, not knowing the score .

I'll be in bed watching it at 1 am .

what does ur parents say lol ?