Key events
Bukayo Saka will captain Arsenal today. Martin Odegaard, Jorginho and Gabriel Jesus – who wore the armband against Atalanta in midweek – are all either injured or on the bench.
Mikel Arteta’s pre-match thoughts
We have a gameplan, but then the opponent does certain things that either allows you play in areas you want to or not… You have to deliver with the ball.
Pep Guardiola’s pre-match thoughts
We talked a little bit about quick transitions and attacking spaces; last season we didn’t do that, so we’ll see. Today is a new opportunity to do it better.
The early Premier League game was a thriller, with four goals and both managers being sent off at the Amex Stadium.
Read Pep Guardiola on Arsenal and that other business
If you are pressing [then it is] long balls, they win the second balls. In the final third they have the ability to play 1,000 million passes and find the pockets and find the right space. If they can run, they can run. Martinelli, Saka, Ødegaard and whatever.
They are a top team because all the departments that a team needs to be solid, they do it. They are good at that. But we are good, too.
Barney Ronay on City’s charges
It is still hard to see any outcome that genuinely benefits the Premier League. Three things can happen from this point. First, City are found guilty and punished to a significant degree. This would represent a potential disaster for the Premier League, which would find its entire recent history discredited, its broadcast rights undermined and integrity open to question. It would also leave a champion club, the richest in the world, in a state of open, vengeful warfare with their own co-members. Hello? Is that the Super League? Yeah. Are we still on?
Irresistible force, meet immovable object
Here’s Mikel Arteta’s take on today’s game
We all know we need a big performance to beat them… We want to improve in certain areas but in order to do that it’s important that we have to be much, much better. We have been really open about discussing that. But the chances have to be created because the process has to be good.
Jonathan Wilson reflects on that 0-0 draw in March
There is, of course, no definitive answer. Had Arsenal opened up, that might have handed a chance to City, lifted them above Arsenal and had everybody condemning Arteta for his hubris. It’s not a case of right and wrong but, with hindsight, and given that at the time of the Arsenal game, City hadn’t won any of eight matches against the sides who would finish in the top six, might that have been an opportunity missed?
“Morning and breakfast greetings from California,” writes Mary Waltz. “Yes, its way too early to say this, but just from a confidence standpoint isn’t it a must win for Arsenal to show they are on the same level as City?”
Erm, wouldn’t a draw do that? I don’t think it’s a must-anything for either team, although it’s probably more important for Arsenal that they don’t lose.
Pep Guardiola on Rico Lewis (who he has left out today)
You ask any player: ‘What is your position?’ And they say: ‘I play holding midfielder. I play winger. I play that.’ Rico plays football. If you put him in one position, he knows exactly what he has to do. He’s so intelligent… I’ve been a manager for 14, 15 years, training unbelievable players. To find one like him in the pockets, he is one of the best I’ve ever trained.
Team news: Calafiori starts
Both managers have had a bit of a tinker. Pep Guardiola brings in Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan and Jeremy Doku for Rico Lewis, the injured Kevin De Bruyne and the uninjured Jack Grealish.
Riccardo Calafiori makes his full Arsenal debut, probably at left-back, with Ben White only on the bench. The omission of White is a big surprise, though there are suggestions he has a minor injury. Jurrien Timber will move across to right-back. Leandro Trossard comes in for Gabriel Jesus up front.
Manchester City (possible 4-1-2-3) Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Rodri; Bernardo, Gundogan; Savinho, Haaland, Doku.
Substitutes: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Stones, Kovacic, Grealish, Nunes, Foden, Lewis, McAtee.
Arsenal (possible 4-2-4-0) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Partey, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli.
Substitutes: Neto, White, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Kacurri, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Sterling, Jesus.
Referee Michael Oliver.
Preamble
You can usually judge the health of a league by its biggest rivalry. Think AC Milan v Napoli in the late 1980s, Man Utd v Arsenal at the turn of the century and Barcelona v Real Madrid when Pep and Jose were in charge. Manchester City v Arsenal isn’t quite in that category, probably never will be, but it would make a worthy Champions League final and that’s a very good starting point for any football-based ding-dong.
This is season three of a rivalry that began when Arsenal knocked Liverpool off the perch reserved for City’s biggest challengers. City gave Arsenal a brutal introduction to life at the highest level, belting them home and away in 2022-23, but last season the only City player to score against Arsenal was Cole Palmer in the Community Shield.
The two league games were cagey and relatively uneventful. Gabriel Martinelli’s late goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 win at the Emirates; the return game in March was a 0-0 draw in name and nature, so much so that I genuinely had to check whether I’d liveblogged it or not.
History has recorded that Arsenal needed to win that game, even though they were ahead of City in the table at the time. Paradoxically, most people think a draw would be fine today, even though they’re behind City. Different stage of the season, different context, different Erling Haaland.
One thing hasn’t changed. City v Arsenal is the biggest game in the biggest league in the world. And that makes it pr-etty, pr-etty big.
Kick off 4.30pm.
